The Saga of Olympus: The Mortal Gods
by Solar Grace
Summary: Story Two: After "Surviving New York,", Meredith and her friends find themselves in the middle of a cross Greek and Norse Quest. Mostly OCs, some camioes, and plot line takes place during "Lost Hero". Lots of research was done to write this fic. R&R AU
1. A New Start

_Disclaimer: All characters and brand names belong to their owners. My characters and plot lines belong to me. The second story in this series is replacing "Blending In." Again, please note that I'm taking this series in a new direction. The second story in this series will switch points of view. _

**The Mortal Gods**

**Chapter One: A New Start**

**_Lyra_**

"You'll like it here, Lyra." Her mother smirked as she checked her cranberry red lipstick in mirror hanging on the closet door.

Lyra rolled her sky blue eyes as she silently told her twin brother, 'yeah right.' It was bad enough going to a boarding school, but this place was supposed to teach her proper edict as well. Like her behavior was that bad.

Skylar leant against the door frame leading into the room. He casted his sister a sympathetic look, but he kept his mouth shut. They had both learned a long time ago that arguing with their mother was like arguing with the wall. Once she made up her mind it would never change.

Lyra plopped herself down on the mattress next to the window. It had been two weeks since their New York adventure, and her mother was still angry with them for leaving the city without permission. "Will you visit?"

"The parent visitor days tend to be around the holidays..." Aslaug Armstrong turned back toward Lyra and sat next to her. Often mistaken as being much younger, Aslaug and Lyra were normally mistaken as being sisters. Both had the same jaw line and blond hair; however Aslaug was a good five inches taller than her daughter. "You know that's when I normally have to work doubles." She gave her shoulder a squeeze, and then she opened her purse.

"Can't we just try doing an on-line school?" Lyra slumped her shoulders as her light white blond hair started to turn a light shade of grey.

"We've talked about this, Lyra, at least a thousand times already. I can't supervise you. Besides the both of you need to grow up, and stop acting like mischievous little children. One of these days your adventures will catch up with you and moving won't save you from having to pay for the full consequences of your actions." She casted a look at her daughter as if saying, you've only got yourself to blame.

"Right…" Lyra's hair turned a darker shade of grey as her heart sank. If only her mother believed them. It wasn't their fault that weird stuff always happened around them. They didn't want to be attacked by one eyed beastly men or that flock of large ugly flying rosters that turned their grandparent's BMW into a rock. And now Lyra felt that her mother was totally abandoning them without even giving them the comfort of being with each other.

Several giggles could be heard outside in the hallway. Skylar's cheeks turned slightly red from embarrassment. He took a couple of steps into the room to rest his back against the wall next to the door and to hide from the hoard of girls stalking him in the hallway.

"I promised myself I wouldn't be one of those types of parents, but oh well." Aslaug Armstrong shrugged as she stood, "but you've given me no choice." She took out of her Coach wallet two credit cards. "You each have a five hundred dollar limit. Your grandparents have agreed to pay the bills as long as you two make honor roll. If your grades drop, then you have to pay them back for all of your purchases. Understood?"

Skylar took his and looked it over before putting it into his wallet. "Yeah, understood. I have to buy a uniform anyway."

Lyra took hers and sighed, great now she was being bribed too. She twisted her lips as a new wave of disappointment rolled through her core. Why couldn't her grandparents understand how hard she tried and how difficult it was being dyslexic! "Whatever," under her breath, "it's not like you're giving us a choice."

"Good." Aslaug casted her hazel eyes down at her watch, "well this is it. Lyra make us proud. You're grandmother expects you to turn into a fine lady. Who knows maybe you'll catch the eye of a wealthy young man while you're at it."

Lyra glanced over at her brother. His face twisted as if saying, 'over my dead body.' "Sure mom, I'll marry into the royal family of Sweden."

"That's the spirit!" Aslaug ignored her daughter's sarcasm. She bent down and plucked a kiss on the top of her head. "Please, text me at least once a week to let me know how you're doing." With one last glance she moved out the door. Than rather rudely she hissed to one of the many girls pinning for her son. "No! You can't give him your phone number!"

Skylar gave Lyra one last eye roll, "I'll see you during Friday's football game?"

"Yeah, save me a seat." She gave him a wave before he disappeared.

Two salty tears ran down Lyra's cheeks as her family left. For the first time in her life she was utterly alone.

About thirty seconds past before a crowd of girls burst through the door. Simultaneously they assaulted Lyra with about a half dozen questions. "Who was that guy?" "Is that your boyfriend?" "Is he single?" "Does he like older girls?" "Can I have his number?" "Can you please tell him to Facebook friend me?"

"Enough!" A really tall girl with broad shoulders and a mouth full of braces shouted over the pack of girls from the door. "Don't you have unpacking to do?"

"Kill joy," a snotty looking honey blond with dark brown eye brows spoke under her breath. "Come on girls, let's go 'unpack'."

"Ewe, my maid's doing that for me," one of the girls replied, "let's go watch the boys move into their school."

"Ugh, their school is like three miles away," a shrimpy anorexic looking girl. She pouted as they walked out. "Do you think they'll let me ask my dad if he can buy me a gulf chart to use on campus?"

The tall girl waited until the crowd left before pulling her suit case into the tiny dorm room. "Ugh, I thought they would never leave." She pulled her suit case over to the empty bed next to the wall and plopped down on it. "Hi, I'm Valerie Torres." She looked down at the paper in her hand and then back at Lyra, "I guess we're roomies."

Later that day during freshmen and transfer student orientation, Lyra found herself sitting in a recently painted auditorium with about fifty other girls. She zoned out about ten minutes into the two hour presentation given by the school's administration. Yeah, there was a video made by the AV club, a musical number done by the drama club, and a hip hop number by the dance club to break things up, but still overall she just didn't want to be there.

"Well, ladies, I hope you take advantage of at least one of our many different clubs and activities." Ms. Douglas, the principal studied her students as if she was already deciding who would be this year's model students and who would be the thorns in her side. From what Lyra could tell, this woman must have been around for ages. Deep set wrinkles plagued her face due to too much fake baking, and her suit looked like she wanted to carry the illusion of elderly elegance. "Lastly, ladies make sure that you mark your agendas for this year's homecoming ball. You will be expected to put into practice your finishing classes and be on your best behavior." She clasped her hands together, "okay than, once again welcome to Clarion Academy. I will enjoy getting to know each and every single one of you." She moved off the stage.

One of the vice principals took her place. "Okay, ladies you are going to move to your assigned classrooms to get weighed in and measured for your uniforms."

As soon as everyone started to move, Valerie exclaimed, "Weighed in? Are you kidding me!" Valerie's eyes looked like they were going to pop out. "It's not like we're wrestlers or boxers or models or something like that!"

"Yeah, I know. They shouldn't be doing something like that." Lyra shrugged. "It doesn't really matter anyway. It's not like gaining or losing weight will affect our grades. Well, loosing too much weight will make your grades go down, that's pretty obvious." She stood and stretched her legs right before her row started to empty into the isle.

"Yeah, but still it's embarrassing." Valerie didn't seem totally impressed with the school either. She was almost a head taller than the rest of the girls and was already painfully aware that she stood out from everyone else.

Outside in the lobby there were girls with hot pink and black shirts on waving the girls towards different classrooms. "If your last name starts with A – F, go to room 105…" Each of the girls was holding up a sign as they periodically stopped the girls who looked confused.

"Don't worry about the weigh in," Lyra gave Valerie a supportive smile, "I'll see you back at the room!"

Valerie waved as she was shooed down the opposite hall way by one of the girls who looked a lot like her. Lyra guessed that they were either sisters or cousins.

When Lyra entered room 105 she found three other girls in there already. After another two minutes four more joined them. Lyra half expected this school to be filled with trendy snot rags, but most of them looked like they were just average looking girls. Well, average looking girls wearing Pandora bracelets, coach ballet flats, and designer jeans. Some even looked like they didn't care about their appearance and were dressed in ripped up jeans and graphic t-shirts.

The door slammed behind her, "Hi everyone! My name is Becky and I'm like your Senior Ambassador."

Lyra shifted her weight to look over her should at the girl that just entered.

Becky bobbed her chocolate brown pin straight pony tail back and forth as she spoke, "Okay first I'm like going to do a roll call. There should be like eight of you here!" She silently moved her lips as started to count them but then stopped and then started again as a couple of the girls moved over to the desks to sit down. "Okay, looks like we have eight. Now let's see if we have the right eight!" When she giggled her eyes squinted, "Danielle Anna Aperies?"

"Here!" One of the girls sitting down shouted.

"Lyra Halldora Armstrong? Did I say that right?" The girl looked like she was rereading her name again.

Lyra could feel the heat rising in her cheeks as one or two of the girls snorted. No one bothered to say her stupid middle name. "Close enough."

"Right… next, April May Bennett?"

"Over here!"

"Cassidy Lynn Cook?"

"E'llo!"

"Rachel Elizabeth Dare?" She waited about three seconds. "Rachel?"

Lyra took her eyes off of Becky and scanned the room as well. They quickly shifted and made contact with one of the girls in a graphic tee and tattered jeans. The girl was staring at her with such intensity that she felt really creeped out.


	2. Friday Night Lights

**Chapter Two: Friday Night Lights**

_Lyra_

Safe to say Lyra avoided that Rachel girl like the plague. Luckily she was like a sophomore or a junior and the only class they had together was Into to Ballet. Lyra would have loved to transfer out of that class, but it was mandatory. Ms. Douglas believed that taking Ballet was the first step into learning how to carry oneself with grace and dignity. Thankfully she wasn't the instructor!

Other than that Lyra's day to day activities were pretty normal. Yeah, it took a while to get used to there being no boys around. Classes actually went smoothly. Everyone raised their hand and was actually called upon. Despite loving to look at certain guys, Lyra did not miss the jerks that acted up in class and normally were so rude that class generally became pointless. Those types of guys she could do without. And for the first time in a long time she actually felt like she was learning stuff and not just worrying about sounding dumb.

The other thing she had to get used to was wearing a stupid uniform. The uniform had several variations to it. Freshmen had to wear maroon socks, plaid skirts, a white dress shirt, solid maroon tie and white sweater. Sophomores had maroon and white socks, a solid white skirt and maroon sweater with a plaid tie and white dress shirt. Juniors had to wear maroon a line dresses with white cardigans and high heels, and lastly seniors were allowed to wear either a gray and maroon dress or khakis with a white dress shirt maroon cardigan. Those girls maintaining honor roll were allowed to dress in street clothing once a month on Fridays.

The only point in the week that Lyra looked forward to was the Friday home football games. It was mandatory that everyone attended unless they were quarantined in the nurse's office. The stadium was fenced in so that no one would sneak out and the entire faculty from both the girls and boys schools patrolled the bathrooms and entry ways. Of course they let the students hang out at the concession stand or sit together in the student benches. It was pretty weird at first, but by October everyone was used to it.

Lyra and Skylar generally sat together in the bleachers near the parents' section to avoid Skylar's fan club.

"I can't believe homecoming is only two weeks away. I'm thinking of just walking up to some random guy and asking him if he would want to go with me." Lyra sighed as she played with a loose button from her midnight blue pea coat. Out of all the girls in her homeroom, she was the only one without a date. Even Val found a guy to take her. This was starting to get depressing.

Half paying attention to his sister, and half paying attention to the game, Skylar smirked from under his Jets hat, "don't worry it's already taken care of."

"Skylar, what did you do?" Lyra's hair instantly turned black. She absolutely hated her brother meddling in her love life.

"I found you a date. Don't worry; you're going to love him!" His eyes held a mischievous light. It was the type that always got them into trouble.

"Ugh! I bet it is either the most obnoxious or the most disgusting guy you could find." Lyra shuttered as the memory of one of Skylar's last match making attempts came to mind.

"Nah, he's not the most obnoxious, nor is he the most disgusting guy I know. He's just a little young, that's all." His grin stretched from ear to ear.

A little young? They were freshmen, there weren't too many kids that much younger than them. Wait a second… Lyra's eyes widen, "Its Trent isn't it?"

"Yeap, we're getting the band back together." Skylar clapped for their team as the ball was carried over twenty yards for a first and ten.

"Uh… a little young, he's like ten. Everyone is going to laugh at us! Skylar how could you!" Lyra balled her fists. Her brother really did need a good beating.

"Nah, he's eleven now. Don't worry; he's hitting a growth spurt. From his Facebook picture he's looking about the same age as half of the guys in the freshman class." Skylar got to his feet as the football was thrown another fifteen yards. The running back caught the ball and sprinted toward the end zone.

"TOUCH DOWN!"

Just about everyone held their breath as their team went for the two point conversion. Another minute and the ball was snapped, the quarterback faked a throw and then slid in-between an opening in the line.

The stands went crazy.

As Lyra sat down she watched the cheerleaders complete a wave of back handsprings and standing back tucks. They then got down on the track and did twenty two push-ups to represent the current score. "So, are you going with Meredith or Zillah?" She shouted up at her brother.

"What?" He bent down to hear her.

"Who are you taking to homecoming?"

"Zill of course, don't worry, I got Meredith a date too." His smirk returned.

"Really? Who?" Lyra's hair lightened a few shades as the thought of seeing her friends again made her happy.

"Eh, one of the guys over there." Skylar pointed to one of the tables at the concession stands. It was filled with boys wearing their school sweats and playing Mythomatic.

"One of them?" Lyra grimsed.

"They're not so bad, really. They just lack self-confidence and social skills that's all." Skylar shrugged.

"And personal hygiene." She shuttered.

"Nah, they're not as bad as some of the other guys I know. Don't worry, Mermaid's sweet, she'll be good for Donald."

Lyra rolled her eyes, "your roommate? You've set up one of my best friends with him? Make sure he takes a shower before the dance, ok." When he didn't answer her she pinched him, "OK?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry so much." Skylar's attention was drawn back into the game as the other team fumbled the ball.

"Whatever. I'm going to get some hot chocolate, want any?" Lyra stood.

"Sure, get me a pretzel too." Skylar stood again with the crowd, "GO! GO! GO!"

Lyra slid her way through the bleachers as the fans were going crazy again. One of the guys she passed pinched her butt. She turned toward him and hissed, "Back off Creep."

The guy just gave her kissy lips before turning back to the game.

Lyra had half a mind to tell one of the staff members at the bottom of the bleachers, but decided against it. The last time someone did that to her Skylar broke every bone in the guy's hand. Instead she marched over to the concession stand. She was about to go give Donald a hard time about going to the home coming dance with her friend, but something in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

On the opposite side of the fence line was about five acres of woods they used for Project Adventure during gym. There weren't any students over there since it was pretty dark, and most of the faculty normally shooed them from lingering over there.

"TOUCH DOWN!" The stands went crazy again and the kids lingering near the concession stand were too focused on themselves to see the black shadow cross the moon and swoop down next to the fence. At first Lyra thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, or perhaps it was a night fury from How to Train Your Dragon? She quickly moved closer and hid behind one of the garbage cans several feet away.

A black Pegasus was standing there with his rear towards her. He, yep defiantly a stallion, stomped his feet as a girl with bright red hair sticking out from a New York Mets cap slid off its back. The girl patted his nose and sighed, "don't worry Blackjack, I have a strong feeling we'll find out what happened to Percy soon enough."

The Pegasus swished his head back and forth and then took off into the air.

Lyra held her breath, partially from the disgusting smell of trash, and partially because Rachel Dare was the girl that had dismounted the Pegasus.


	3. Catching Up with the Glews

**Chapter Three: Catching Up with the Glews**

**Meredith**

"I talked with the two principals, and was able to convince them to let you stay over for the weekend." Sophie looked at Trent and Zillah through the mirror as she made her way along the winding road leading up to Clarion Academy.

Trent yawned, "got to love teachers' convention weekend!"

"Got to love November, four days off from school!" Meredith looked over her shoulder and gave Zillah a smile. She knew her friend had been busting her butt to get her homework done the entire ride up to Connecticut.

Upon getting back from their New York City adventure, the Glews had been doing everything in their power to make Zillah's life feel more normal. Sophie had to contact the Louisiana Department of Child Services or something like that and convince them that Zillah was their paternal cousin. Meredith didn't really know how she did it, but after several hours of being on the phone with them she started to get results. Of course by that point Sophie was really annoyed with them, and when she's annoyed she starts snapping her fingers and she changes the tone of her voice. Meredith would swear that the air in the room literally changed. After a while the people on the other side of the line bought her story. Oh, and by the way that's likely how Sophie was able to convince Lyra and Skylar's principals to her kids stay three nights at their school for free.

Back to Zillah! Their next step was signing her up for school. That in itself was a chore. Luckily for everyone, North Jersey schools don't start until after Labor Day and run through the third week in June. So, that bought Zillah enough time to get tested by their school's child study team.

Technically she's old enough to be entering eighth grade, but since she ran away during fifth grade she's missed out on a lot of work. Sophie talked to the people over the middle school and told them Zillah's story. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. Of course Meredith and Trent weren't allowed to be present during the meeting, but when Zillah left the meeting, Meredith was able to take a peek and saw all the case managers whipping their tears from their eyes. Zillah was upset as well, but she was able to regain control of herself after a while.

As a result, Zillah basically got to skip sixth grade. So, instead she was taking sixth grade English and math after school with a tutor and seventh grade English and math during her elective periods. Meredith was ecstatic to learn that Zillah was placed in her English and math classes. As for science and social studies, she's had to do a couple of big projects and turn those in to meet the sixth and seventh grade requirements for promotion.

After they got all of those things settled they worried about changing minor things. Sophie moved out of the master bedroom, and gave that to the girls. This way they would share the master bathroom, and not have to worry about Trent walking in on them or leaving a mess. Besides that Zillah had privacy issues, due to her bad experiences with foster homes, so this arrangement gave her some time to adjust.

So, there they were, it was almost the end of the first marking period. And now they were finally going to get to spend some time with their friends. Yeah, they got to post on each other's walls on Facebook, but it wasn't the same as hanging out in person.

"I finished my social studies project." Zillah held up a set of baseball note cards on the Age of Discovery explorers. "All I have to do now is hand in my journal questions and take the test on that unit. You'll help me study on the way home, right?" She gave Meredith her puppy dog face.

"Sure, I'll sit back there with you and Trent can sit in the front." Meredith shifted her grey eyes toward her brother, "okay?"

He shrugged, "okay." Another yawn escaped his lips, "are we almost there, I'm starving."

"Yes, another couple of miles, Sweetheart." Sophie changed the tone of her voice, "now remember you, three I want you to be on your best behavior. I know that this isn't your school, but you still have to treat it with respect. Otherwise they might not let us visit again. Understood?"

"Yes, Mom." I took a deep breath and prayed that nothing went wrong.

"Yeah, I know." Trent sounded miserable. Meredith knew how he felt. Bad things happen, and most of the time they had no way of controlling the situation.

"Sure, Sophie, thank you for diving us. Can I keep my project in the car?" Zillah was crushing pieces of scrap paper and tossing them into a plastic grocery bag.

"Sure put them in your back pack and place it under my seat. I'm going to be filling the back with the fabric order my boss is having me pick up in the City." Sophie pulled up to a long drive way. She looked at the sign outside the gates, and then slowly made her way up to the parking lot.

After they parked they went into the main building and into the Office. It took about ten minutes but they meet Miss. Douglas, the principal, and were told to wait for Lyra.

Sporting a maroon leotard and tan dance leggings, Lyra practically ran into the office from her ballet class.

All three girls squealed and all talk at once while they were bouncing up and down from excitement.

Ms. Douglas cleared her throat as she gave Lyra a hard look, "Dignity and decorum, dears."

Lyra bit her lip and took a breath, "I am so pleased to see all of you again."

Meredith exchanged a look with Zillah and then giggled, "we are pleased to see you again as well."

Lyra rolled her eyes, "come on, let's get your stuff." She noticed Trent, "hey, you did grow a couple of inches."

Trent scratched the back of his head, "yeah, now we're almost the same height."

Lyra than gave Sophie a hug, "thank you Miss. Glew for bringing everyone up here."

"You're welcome Lyra; now let's get everyone settled in."


	4. The Homecoming Ball

**Chapter Four: The Home Coming Ball **

**Meredith**

The following day was the Homecoming Ball. The girls were given the day off from their lessons to get ready. Those that were wealthy went either into New York City or into Hartford to get their hair and nails done. Those that weren't wealthy had to improvise.

Valerie and her older sister were sharing the common bathroom on the floor above Meredith and her friends. Since none of them could actually do their hair in up dos, they basically begged Valerie's older sister to do their hair. In exchange Meredith sowed back on a couple of buttons that had fallen off their street clothing along with mending a hole in one of Valerie's pants and raising the hem line on one of her sister's skirts.

When they were finished getting ready they walked down to the Alumnae Pavilion. During the summer many of the graduates would return there to hold really lavish parties or use the facilities to get married.

The grounds were a bit off to the side of the campus, so their girls had about a mile to walk. By the time they got there Meredith's feet were already killing her. Not one to normally wear heals; she was already regretting not stashing a pair of flip flops in her purse.

At least the scenery was pretty. Along the Cambridge gray stone pathway were Weeping Cherry Blossom trees that had mini white lights wrapped around their base. Rose bushes framed out the path with fancy lanterns hanging behind them. Basically once you started walking towards the Pavilion there was no way to cut through the bushes unless you wanted to get sliced and diced by thorns.

The Pavilion itself was equally impressive. There was an area off to the side where weddings would likely take place. At the far end of the isle leading down to a universal religions podium stood a large white pergola draped in ivory and roses. Strait in front of them stood the neoclassic reception hall. There was a white marble double stair case wrapped around a three tire fountain of Aphrodite standing in the middle of a sea shell. There were several Cherubs surrounding her that were spitting water into the round base below.

Meredith whistled, "they spare no expense here, huh?"

"The inside is even more impressive," said Valerie's older sister. "There are frescos everywhere of different Greek and Roman myths."

"Hey, Ladies!" Skylar called as he stood from one of the benches along the side of the path. His smile stretched from ear to ear and his eyes were fixed on Zillah. Zillah had on a silver satin gown with an asymmetrical waist. The bust line was a strapless heart shape with sparkling crystals.

Meredith couldn't help but smile. Her mother did a great job with Skylar's suit. Well, Sophie did a great job with all of their outfits. Working at a bridal shop definitely has its benefits and when orders get canceled at the last minute, dresses and suits tend to get thrown out or resold. Not to mention all the extra fabric that gets left over from custom orders.

Trent stood as well and walked over to Lyra. "Mom told me to give you this flower thing." He held out a box for her.

"Thanks Trent." Lyra opened the box and slipped out the wrist corsage. Since Sophie had designed Lyra's dress as well, the white roses with sky blue tool perfectly matched her corset style gown.

After watching everyone break down into couples Meredith's stomach twisted. She looked at Skylar, "hey where's my date?"

He shifted his eyes and motioned to the kid standing about twenty feet to the side of them. He was practically hiding behind one of the Doric Columns holding up the building. "Hey Donald, get over here and meet Meredith!"

Meredith never saw a kid's face change so many different colors. It went from stark white, to bright red to green. The poor guy could barely walk straight he looked so nervous. He took out a handkerchief and tried to blot the river of sweat coming off of his pimple filled brow.

"Hi… I'm…" His eyes looked like they were going to bug out as his cheeks puffed. He then tried to swallow. "Donald."

Meredith pressed her lips together for a second as she held her breath. "Hi Donald, I'm Meredith. Are you okay, you don't look like you're feeling too good?"

Skylar gave him a pat on the back, "Don's fine, he just doesn't get to talk to girls too much. You're not going to bite him, right Mermaid?"

"Right." Meredith held out her arm, so that they could hook elbows, "it's okay, I'm not going to slap you either."

Remembering his manners, Don hooked arms with her so that they could walk up the stairs.

Meredith glanced over her shoulder to catch the other girls giving her a sympathetic look.

In between the main course and dessert Meredith found herself leaning against the wall in front of the doors leading into the bathroom. For about the fifth time that night, her date ran off to use the rest room. At first he was just nervous, but after getting a couple of pats on the back and a few thumbs up from his classmates, he calmed down. But now, it just looked like he was just feeling sick. Not knowing what else to do, Meredith decided to wait for him to see if he needed to go to the nurse or something.

"You know if you want to leave early it will be okay with me," A girl, with curly henna red hair and a midnight blue satin bunchy ball gown, was talking to her date as they walked out of the ballroom toward the bathroom.

The guy shrugged, "it's okay Rachel. It's weird but this thing almost reminds me of my mom."

"Ok, thanks Nico, I'll just be a minute," she walked past Meredith to reach the ladies room.

Nico stopped a few feet away from the bathrooms and stuffed his hands into his pockets as he stood there admiring a fresco.

Meredith pushed off the wall, and took several silent steps towards the boy. She almost felt like she was easy dropping on their conversation, but since he was a guy she thought that he could check on her date.

He quickly turned as he pulled his hands out of his pocket. He accidentally knocked into her.

Meredith fell flat on her back, "ouch…" She blinked several times as bright spots danced in front of her eyes.

His wild green eyes went wide for a split second before he offered her his hand.

Meredith was tempted to just stand up on her own, but she didn't want to act like a jerk. Plus she was wearing a turquoise mermaid style dress, and she doubted she would have been able to stand on her own anyway. So, she planted her feet on the ground and pulled herself up with his help. A shiver went down her spine. You know, kind of like the saying that someone's just walked over your grave.

Meredith swallowed, he was a bit taller than her, and about the same age. Good looking too.

"Are you okay?" He asked as his brows knitted together.

She blushed, "I'm alive," a knot built itself up in her stomach.

"That's good to know." He grinned, "I'd like my hand back."

Her blush deepened, "Oh, sorry." She took her eyes off of his and looked down and turned his hand over before releasing it. "Cool ring." It was in the shape of a skull with rubies in its eyes.

"Thanks, most girls find it creepy." He adjusted it, and then looked back at her. "You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

"I didn't sneak up on you. I just umm…" Say something smart, or funny, no smart, she told herself. She didn't want to sound like an idiot in front of this guy. She darted her eyes over to the fresco. "Oh, cool fresco, that's um.. Persephone," She pointed to a beautiful girl sitting in a field of flowers, "and that's Hades," she than pointed to a man coming out of the side of the hill in the back ground. He was in a black chariot with jet black horses.

"I know the story." He gave her half of a smile as his ears turned red.

"Oh okay." She suddenly remembered why she wanted to talk to him in the first place. She gave him a smile as she twirled her fish tail braid around her finger, "um could you do me a huge favor?"

"Maybe."

Meredith rolled her eyes and sighed, "look my date hasn't been well… date like… he's in the bathroom, could you check on him for me. I don't think he's feeling good."

"On one condition," he lips twisted into a smirk.

"Okay, shoot." She tilted her head and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"You'll owe me one."

"A favor of equal value, deal," she extended her hand.

He shook her hand and then went into the boys' bathroom.

Meredith couldn't wipe the silly grin off her face. Sure they were both there with someone else, but still it felt good to actually talk to a boy and not have anyone make fun of her in the process.

"There you are!" Lyra exclaimed as Zillah, Skylar and Trent pilled out of the ballroom behind her.

"See, I told you they were in the bathroom again," Trent said.

"We went back to the table, and you two weren't there. Lyra got worried," Skylar rolled his eyes.

"I'm okay, Donald is still in the bathroom though," Meredith shrugged.

Behind her Rachel Dare walked out of the girls' bathroom. Her eyes darted around the lobby area they were standing in. She then moved over to where they were standing. "Umm, excuse me."

Lyra went stiff as a board.

Skylar flashed her smile, "How can we help you?"

Rachel looked like she was going to ask them if they'd seen her date, but then she just swooned.

Meredith was the closest one to her; she caught her arm, and nearly fell on top of her.

"What just happened?" Trent's brows knitted together as Skylar crossed over to steady Meredith and pick up Rachel. Not seeing any benches or chairs he propped her against the wall.

Out of nowhere the lights dimmed and emerald green mist swirled around her. A second later she opened her eyes. They were glowing and when she opened her mouth more green mist came out. When she spoke the soft sweet voice she just used to say 'excuse me,' was gone. Her voice was not her own, but of someone that sounded like they lived long ago.

"_In Vin - land seven heroes will assemble_

_The screams of the sea will cause the earth to tremble_

_From Dragon's Lair only silver may be taken_

_Those who were once thought dead will soon awaken"_


	5. The Stolen Glasses

**Chapter Five: The Stolen Glasses**

**Skylar**

Ugh? Skylar felt like his brain was going to explode as he listened to the girl's strange chat. He tore his eyes off of her and then back toward his friends. Everyone looked like they were in shock.

The lights returned to their normal state of illumination as the emerald green smoke dissipated and disappeared.

The girl groaned, "What happened?"

Skylar turned back toward her, "you fainted. Are you okay?" He glanced over at Trent, "go get her some water."

Trent nodded and then he jogged back toward the Ballroom doors.

"Does that happen a lot?" Lyra asked as her hair turned black.

"Does what happen?" Rachel blinked again.

"Fainting." Said Zillah.

"Oh, I guess. That's all I did, right? I didn't rip my dress or anything like that," Her brows came together as she stared at Lyra.

The door to the boy's bathroom opened. Donald and another boy came out. Don's normal sun deprived completion looked even more pasty than normal.

"Don's decided to head to the nurse's office." The second boy told Meredith.

"I don't get it," Don took a couple of steps to reach Meredith's side. "I was feeling fine all day today."

"Maybe you ate something that doesn't agree with you," she suggested as she shrugged.

"Donny eats everything," Skylar offered.

"Except seafood. I'm allergic to all types of fish, and not just the taste, but the smell always makes me feel," His face almost turned green again. A second later he sprinted back into the bathroom.

Meanwhile Trent returned with the water and handed it to Rachel.

The dark haired boy's wild green eyes widened seeing Rachel on the floor, "hey, what happened?" He bent down next to her.

"She fainted," Zillah offered, but the expression on her face told another story.

"I really don't remember, Nico. One minute I'm standing and the next I was on the floor," Rachel took a deep breath.

Nico looked like he didn't believe her.

"We'll help you to the nurse, ok?" Meredith knelt down next to the boy and offered the girl her hand.

The following morning Skylar was back in his room talking to Trent about what happened the previous night when Don returned from the nurse's office.

"Dude, how are you feeling?" Skylar offered his roommate a sympathetic smile from his spot on top of the desk.

Don shrugged, "I was fine the rest of the night after you dropped me off at the nurse's office." He snapped his fingers, "shoot, I left my sleeping bag in Pete's room, right?"

"Uh… I don't know," was all Skylar could offer. Thankfully Don and his Mythomagic friends decided to have a mini party in one of the other guy's room the first night Trent slept over. This gave Skylar and Trent some time to catch up. They also spent several hours playing war games on Skylar's X-Box.

"Hey man, thanks for letting me crash here the last two nights. I'll sleep on the floor tonight, okay?" Trent climbed off Don's bed and sat on the floor.

"No problem, we stayed up watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy the other night." Sitting down at his desk, Don's face turned a slight shade of green again.

"Hey, if you're going to throw up, please do it in the garbage can or in the bathroom," Skylar said.

Don swallowed, "I'm good, really. I'm going to skip the football game though."

"Hey, um Don, could you do me a favor?" Trent asked.

"What?" He turned his desk fan on.

"Could you Google Vin-land for me on your computer?"

"Um sure." Don opened his laptop and Googled Vin-land. "It was a Viking Settlement in North America, why?"

"Umm… no reason, do you know where it is?"

Don looked at his computer again, "Like the northern tip of Newfoundland in Canada."

"Ugh, that's far…" Trent looked disappointed.

A little later, Skylar and Trent headed out to the Homecoming football game. Of course there were more people there than normal. Alumna filled the stands with their families, locals and the neighboring towns' people also arrived to watch the game. Since, it was in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, the security was a bit lax.

Skylar and Trent found the girls at one of the tables near the food stands. Meredith had on her mother's Ben Franklin glasses. She was leaning up on the picnic table with her knees on the bench and her butt in the air. Several boys from his World History class were checking her out. Skylar gave them a hard look as he cracked his knuckles. One of the boys must have felt him staring at him because his face turned bright red. He smacked one of the other guys in the arm and motioned them to walk toward the stands.

Skylar twisted his lips as he looked over Meredith's shoulder. It appeared that she was writing down the lines from Rachel's creepy chant. The bench creaked as he added his weight to it.

"I don't like this, weird stuff like that just doesn't happen for no reason," Zillah crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Well, what can we do? It's not like we actually know what it means." Lyra took the glasses from Meredith and read the lines over.

"I think something wants us to go to Vinland or rather L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland Canada." Trent grinned, "we had Donald look up a whole bunch of stuff for us on the internet."

Meredith sat back on her heels, "Even if something wants us to go to Canada, we have no way of getting there," she pointed out. "No one here has their license, and mom has three dresses she's working on right now. I'd hate to ask her to take off from work to drive us there and back."

"It's about a two day car trip anyway and that's with taking a ferry," Skylar added in.

Trent reached over and took the glasses off of Lyra's face and placed them on his own face. "'From Dragon's Lair only silver may be taken.' That sounds pretty cool. I'd like to meet a dragon."

"Not if it wants to eat you Sponge," Meredith shuttered.

"Can I see your glasses?" Rachel Dare had snuck up to the table. She was flanked by that boy she was with last night and another one with curly brown hair and elf like facial features. The elf boy quickly snatched the glasses off of Trent's face and then he tossed them to Rachel.

"Hey! Those are my mom's! Give them back!" Trent stood and balled his fists.

Skylar stood, and looked down at them, "Look we don't want any trouble, just give us back the glasses and no one will get hurt." He shifted his eyes Lyra and Zillah were on their feet as well. Zillah had her hair clip in her hand. Meredith looked like she was in shock meanwhile Trent looked like he wanted to leap over the table and rip the glasses out of the girl's hand.

"What's it to you anyway, they're just glasses, right?" Rachel smirked.

"Right, now please give them back." Meredith's eyes darted from Rachel to that Nico kid from last night. "My mom will be very angry if we broke them on her."

The elf kid moved so fast Skylar couldn't stop him from stealing the notebook off the table. "Hmm… what's this?" He tossed it to Nico, "read that out loud, will ya."

"It's just a stupid poem," Meredith pouted.

Nico cursed under his breath as he looked at the chant.

"Here try these on," Rachel passed the glasses to Nico. Her eyes shifted back to the girls. "Hey, can I see that clip?"

"Over my dead body," Zillah hissed.

Nico placed the glasses on his face and then he looked down at the note pad. With a whistle he looked up and smiled at Trent, "just glasses? Really? These things are awesome." He cleared his throat and read the lines from the chant out loud.

Rachel shook her head, "I thought there was something different about all of you. Besides, magical items just don't appear out of thin air."

"They're half-bloods?" Asked the elf boy.

Nico took the glasses off and handed them back to Trent.

"I believe so, different than normal ones, but I think they already know that." Rachel tilted her head to the side.

"Look this is probably all some sort of misunderstanding, Rachel. We don't want any trouble, and we certainly aren't half-bloods." Skylar gave an uneasy laugh, "whatever that means. We're just normal teenagers enjoying the day, okay? The glasses are a umm new invention to help kids with dyslexia read better. That's all. There's no such thing as magic, there are no dragon's lairs or silver or anything like that."

Rachel almost laughed, "and how do you explain your sister's hair?"

Skylar's sky blue eyes widened. He turned toward Lyra. Her hair was as black as his. "Wigs."

"Oh yeah, it's a wig. I like my brother's hair so much, that I throw on my wig when we're together."

Rachel rolled her eyes; she turned toward a girl nearby talking to her friends. "Hey Silvia!"

The girl turned.

"What color is Lyra's hair?"

The girl looked confused for about thirty seconds. She shifted her gaze toward Lyra, "blond."

"Thanks!" Rachel turned back toward them. "Okay, so let's get everything straight. Last night, you all said that nothing happened after I fainted, correct?"

Zillah sighed, and sat back down. "Yeah, so what?"

"What really happened kids," the elf boy rubbed his hands together, "is that this freaky green smoke circled Rachel out of nowhere and then her eyes started to glow, and then when she spoke her voice was all raspy and ancient like and then she chanted the prophesy you wrote down." His grin stretched from ear to ear.

Skylar felt light headed, so he sat back down. This was too much even for him.

"Did all of you see that, yes or no?" Nico shifted his wild green eyes and then settled them on Meredith.

She slightly nodded.

"Mermaid!" Zillah kicked her from under the table.

"There is no point denying it." Meredith sighed. "We're freaks okay, join the club."

"Eh, you're not freaks, it's not like you can do this." The elf boy twisted his arm around in a way that would likely rip several ligaments in a normal person. "Now that's freaky." He grinned.

"Connor!" Rachel shook her head.

"What? Children of Hermes are all like quadruple jointed." He faked looking hurt. "It helps us steal more stuff and get out of tight places."

"You're a son of Hermes! That's awesome!" Trent's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

The kid nodded, "Connor Stoll, Son of Hermes at your service. Need me to steal anything for you today? I'll take fifty percent of the profit." He flashed a grin.

Trent looked at Rachel, "I bet you're a daughter of Apollo!"

She gave him a slight smile, "good guess, but sadly no. My dad is a business man. I'm actually just the oracle of Apollo. I can see through the mist and I get visions sometimes." She shrugged.

"Cool! You're like Ca…" Trent searched the air for the right name.

"Cassandra?" Meredith filled in the blanks, "She refused Apollo's umm… attention, and was given the ability to see the future but no one believed her. Very different."

"Yeah, Rach isn't allowed to date. Like forever," Connor gave them a pouty face.

Rachel shrugged, "who needs dating when my best friend is a god."

"What about you?" Lyra gestured toward Nico, "what's your deal?"

Nico looked a bit surprised to be noticed. Skylar took him for the type of guy that watches everything, works behind the scenes, and only noticeably gets involved when he has to.

"I'm the son of Hades." He smirked like he wanted to see the dread on their faces. At least that's what Skylar thought at first, but when he looked at his eyes, he saw another emotion, fear. Skylar guessed it was really the fear of being instantly rejected.

"Whoa, do you like get to talk to ghosts and stuff?" Trent looked like he was really impressed.

"Sometimes."

"Wicked!" Trent grinned, "Could you like call up someone famous like umm… Hercules or Achilles or Odysseus, or King Arthur?"

"That's an abuse of power, Trent," Meredith pointed out. "Besides Hercules is on Olympus."

Trent pouted, "it would still be awesome."

"Meredith's right," Nico placed the notebook on the table, "so what are you going to do about the quest?"

Everyone exchanged looks. "What can we do? There is no way to get to Vinland."

"Maybe, maybe not." Rachel grinned. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "Give me a second." She walked several feet away.

Skylar heard bits and pieces of what she was saying. He also wondered what was the deal with the mist?

Connor walked around the bench and sat in the narrow space in-between Lyra and Zillah. He gave both of them a wink. Zillah rolled her eyes and got up. She walked over to Skylar and sat on his lap.

Skylar's heart jumped into double time as he felt her butt on the top of his thighs. He was so distracted that he didn't notice Connor's awkward attempt at flirting with his sister.

Nico continued to stand, but at least now he was talking quietly to Trent and Meredith.

A few minutes passed before Rachel came back to the table. "Okay, I've gotten us a ride."


	6. The Escorts

**Chapter Six: The Escorts**

**Skylar**

Rachel sat down at the picnic table and outlined the plan. "Look," she said, "I can get you to Newfoundland, but that's as far as I can go." She shrugged, "Besides the trip will help me finish my lit project on Beowulf."

"What if we get there and nothing happens," Meredith asked.

Rachel tapped the table with her fingers, "I don't know. But I feel like there is something you need to see there." She twisted her lips as if she were really trying hard to figure out what the oracle wanted them to do.

"Before we go, you need to decide upon a leader. The prophecy was given to all of you at the same time, right," asked Nico.

"Yeah, I nominate Skylar." Trent smiled, "you were the last one to talk to Rachel before she turned ancient."

Meredith nodded in agreement, "you and Lyra are the oldest. It should be one of you."

"Now, wait a minute, I'm not experienced enough to lead a quest. Shouldn't elf boy or hell boy lead since they've done stuff like this before?" Skylar's voice cracked as a wave of anxiety sparked through his system.

Connor blinked, "elf boy? Yuck, elves are like girly. Not that there is anything wrong with being girly, but um I don't want to be called that."

"Ugh, not according to my mom, she goes gaga for Lalagos, Orlando Bloom's character, from Lord of the Rings," Meredith offered.

"Mom goes gaga for all of Orlando Bloom's characters," Trent rolled his eyes.

"You don't think I'm girly, do you Lyra?" Connor gave her a mischievous smile as he poked her arm.

Lyra's brows knitted together. "Uh…" She darted her sky blue eyes back toward Rachel, "when do we meet that limo?"

"In about fifteen minutes," Rachel calmly stated. The more playful girl seemed to withdraw into herself.

"We better go back to our rooms and get warmer clothes. It's only chilly here; I can imagine it's freezing already up there," Lyra took that as an opportunity to slide off the bench.

* * *

><p>It actually took more like a half hour to get there. Which was fine, the girls took forever to get their shit together. Typical, Skylar thought as he waited by parking lot in front of their dorm with Trent, Connor, and Nico. It was bad enough having a twin sister who normally took an hour to get ready to do anything, but with four of them. He wondered if they would leave before it got dark.<p>

Connor and Nico had disappeared for about twenty minutes anyway. When they got back Connor was dressed in warmer clothing, but Nico had the same black jeans and aviator jacket on from before.

The limo had just pulled in when the girls came out of the door.

The limo driver opened the door for them. Once inside he turned back toward them. "Where to, Miss. Dare?"

"Providence, my dad's yacht should be meeting us there." Rachel closed the screen that separated the back from the front compartment.

"You're dad's yacht?" Lyra's hair turned a stormy shade of gray. Skylar could understand the crack in her voice. Ugh… boats always made both of them sea sick. Even cruise ships. His thoughts drifted back to that Disney cruise his grandparents took them on. They spent more time throwing up on Mickey than actually having fun.

"Yeah, he doesn't use it that much this time of the year. I would have ordered his plane, but he's using it to travel to Malaysia," Rachel shrugged. She didn't look that concerned about traveling north in a yacht.

Skylar wondered if this was a normal thing for her or if she just didn't care. Either way he would definitely have preferred to fly to Newfoundland than sail there.

* * *

><p>It took them around an hour and a half to reach the port. Once there, the girls went off and did a little shopping while the yacht refueled. Meanwhile the boys just sat there and waited. Every time Skylar or Trent asked Connor and Nico about their lives as half-bloods, both just told them that they were safer if they didn't know.<p>

Safer if they didn't know? Skylar was a bit peeved by that. How could he trust them if they weren't willing to open up? After a while he gave up trying to get some answers. He started to focus on the meaning behind the prophecy. The first line he understood. They were going to an actual Viking colony in North America. There were seven of them, well eight if he wanted to count Rachel. The second line he kind of understood. But the rest just seemed strange.

When the girls finally returned, they were caring several shopping bags from Wal-Mart. From what Skylar could tell it was mostly power bars and juice boxes.

"We've got provisions." Zillah grinned as she held up her bags.

"Provisions?" Skylar frowned as he wondered how long this trip was going to take.

"Well, yeah, Meredith thinks it's going to take over a day to get there by boat," Zillah shrugged.

"What?" Skylar ran his fingers through his hair, "we're going to get into so much trouble."

"Don't worry it's taken care of," Connor grinned.

"What do you mean it's already taken care of?" Lyra's hair had turned black once more.

"The mist," He waved his hands in the air, "it makes all things possible."

"Right…" Lyra and Skylar exchanged looks. "We're doomed."

"Shoot, I got to call mom and tell her what's going on." The look of pure guilt crossed Meredith's face.

"You can Iris Message her when you get on board," Nico offered. He dug into his pocket and tossed her a golden coin. "Throw that into a rainbow as an offering to Iris and then tell her who you want to talk to."

"Ok, thanks Nico," her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, "I guess I owe you two now."

"I guess you do." His ears turned red.

A little while later the yacht finally got back from refueling. They quickly gathered their stuff and headed up the dock to the loading ramp to get on board.

Skylar swallowed hard when he stepped onto the yacht. His stomach already was doing back flips and the worst part was that they weren't even moving yet. Then there was the knot of anxiety that was building up in his system. It made him feel incompetent and awkward; they were two feelings that were fairly foreign to him. It also didn't help that he didn't know how to swim.

Nico shuttered as well as his face took on a green tint. He turned toward Connor, "Maybe I should just meet you there."

Connor pulled him to the side and whispered, "what and leave me to babysit by myself? What if something happens, do you really think they know what they are doing?"

The others didn't seem to hear what they were saying. Well, almost. Meredith stopped next to Skylar on the ramp and frowned. Maybe it was the way the ship was designed or something, but from the sound of their voices Skylar felt that neither one of them wanted to be there.

Meredith walked over to them and placed her hands on their shoulders. "Thank you for the escort boys, but you can go home now. We can take it from here; we're not as new at this as you may think."

Skylar joined her, "we'll take good care of Rachel. Don't worry about her; she's just dropping us off. We'll find our own way home."

Nico didn't look convinced, and Connor just looked perplexed.

"Well, if you say so." Connor nodded slightly, "right." He looked like he wasn't sure what he should do and then he shrugged. "Okay, later dude, good luck." He walked back down the ramp.

Nico shook his head as he waged a battle in his head. He pulled out a long dagger from his pocket and handed it to Meredith. "I thought you might need this."

She took it and unsheathed it. It was an elegant looking bronze blade. The edges looked really sharp, "Thanks, it will definitely do." She looked up and grinned, "I guess I owe you three."

"I guess so." He shrugged, "I'll see you in Newfoundland." Nico left them standing there as he retreated down the ramp.

Skylar squeezed her shoulder. "We'll be ok. You'll see."

Meredith's wall of composure dropped, she looked terrified. "Promise?"

"Promise." Skylar felt equally terrified, but being the nominated leader, he realized that he couldn't flinch, not even for a second.


	7. Sailing North

**Chapter Seven: Sailing North**

**Trent**

"YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Trent stood with his feet locked into the lower rail. His hips were pressed against the upper rail as he held his arms in the air. The salty North Atlantic Ocean bounced below him and sprayed his clothes with its kisses.

Meredith stood next to him on the bow of the ship, but at least she was holding onto the rails. Her long chocolate curls were whipping behind her like a banner, "THIS IS GREAT!" She yelled.

"I KNOW!" Trent responded. "WE NEED A BOAT!" He closed his eyes as he filled his lungs with the salty sea air. Trent could not remember ever feeling this free.

"MOM…" Meredith's smile turned into a frown. "I HAVE TO CALL HER. DO YOU WANT TO COME?"

"SURE!" He stepped down off the rail he was standing on and walked across the bow back toward the doors entering the Salon.

The captain lowered the window and smiled at them. "Enjoying the sea air?"

"Absolutely, I could even go for a swim!" Trent's grin stretched from ear to ear.

"The water's a bit too cold for that, sir." She held onto her cap as the wind started to pick up again.

"I know." He felt his sister's hand on his arm as she pulled him toward the door.

The captain gave them one last nod before closing the window.

Within seconds both Glews were in the upper Salon. It was a deceit size area with white cushion benches out lining the windows and a glass door that lead to the stern of the ship. In the center of the salon was a dining room table that could seat eight comfortably. A serving table stretched across the wall that was shared with the bridge area. The wall above it had several functions. It could be used as a television, a mirror, or it could be opened to have direct conversations with the captain.

Lyra was sitting on the floor with her head in-between her knees and her back against one of the benches.

"EWE you look green!" Trent grinned; he bet she was going to puke any second now.

"Shut up Trent." She moaned as she gripped her life jacket. "Are we there yet?"

"Sorry, Lyra, we still have a ways to go. Do you know where we can find Rachel?" Meredith pressed her lips together as the look of pity crossed her face.

"Oh… I don't know… Downstairs?" She turned over and curled up into the fetal position.

Trent felt a tug on his sleeve again. Meredith motioned for them to go down to the lower Salon on the main deck. The main deck was much larger than the upper deck. There was the master suit and bath, a galley, kitchen, powder room, an office space and Salon. The Salon was twice the size as the one above it. Equipped with a gaming table and indoor movie theater, the windows blacked out with the push of a button. There was even a door that lead out to a sunning area in the back of the ship.

Zillah was sitting on one of the couches watching some vampire show while Rachel was looking out the window with sketch pad in her hands.

"Hey excuse me Rachel?" Meredith wrapped her hands around her waist.

She looked up from her drawing. Trent couldn't get a good look at it. Not that he cared about what she was drawing. He was just a bit curious.

"Could I umm… Iris message my mom? Is that right?" Mermaid looked and sounded pretty uncomfortable.

Rachel stood and placed her pad on her seat. "Sure, you need a rainbow though." She walked across the Salon toward the master bedroom. "There is a mist setting on the shower."

"What's an Iris message?" Trent asked.

Rachel tilted her head as she thought about the best way to answer his question. "It's kind of like a video chat."

"Oh, that's sweet." Trent grinned as he thought about how cool it would be to talk to someone like that.

The master bedroom wasn't huge or anything. It was nice though. Bigger than Trent's own room at home, but that's okay. Who needs a huge fluffy looking bed anyway? Trent shook his head as he dismissed the idea of being envious. It never did him any good and normally got him in super trouble. Another few steps and they entered the bathroom.

Rachel pressed several buttons on the panel next to the shower. Only mist came out of the shower head. "Okay."

"I just toss this in and umm…." Meredith pressed the golden drachma into her palm.

"I'll do it for you. What's your mother's name?" Rachel took the coin from her.

"Sophie Glew," Meredith started to chew on her lip.

Rachel threw the Drachma into the rainbow and then stated, "O Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering and allow me to speak to Sophie Glew from North Jersey."

The rainbow shimmered; their kitchen became visible with their mom standing over the stove. She looked like she was making a hamburger.

"HI MOM!" Trent grinned as his mom jumped a foot into the air. Her jaw dropped seeing them in the Iris message.

"What the…" She blinked, "Trent? Meredith? What's going on, where's Zillah, and who is that girl? And how in the world am I seeing you?"

"Mom, we're fine. Zillah's fine. We're talking to you through an Iris Message. You remember Iris the messenger goddess from the _Iliad_? She allows demigods to speak through her rainbows. You just have to pay her a golden drachma, that's all."

"Like a pay phone…" She blinked as she processed the information.

"Exactly, look mom, we aren't at the school anymore. We're kind of on a quest. Rachel here," Meredith pointed to Rachel, "is the oracle of Apollo and she gave us a prophecy. So, we're heading north to umm… figure out the prophecy."

All of the color faded from her face. "What do you mean you're heading north? Meredith where are you exactly?"

"We're on a yacht! It's sooo cool mom, I want one for Christmas!" Trent gave her his 'I want another cookie, please mommy, I'm a good boy' face.

"I'm sure you do." Her brows came together as she processed every word that she heard coming from the image of her children. "And where are you going on this yacht?" Flames from the stove jumped around the pan behind her.

"Newfoundland. It's a Vikings settlement. We're going to find a dragon's lair too!" Trent started to jump up and down. It wasn't every day they got to see a dragon.

Several tears poured out of Sophie's eyes. She had spent the last thirteen years of her life protecting them with every ounce of strength in her being, and now when she trusted them to stay overnight some place without her, they abandoned her.

"Mom, we're okay. Please don't cry; we're not going to get killed or anything like that. It's just a little adventure. We'll be home before you know it." Meredith's lips trembled.

"I can't protect you… how could you do this without me? Meredith… Trent…" She started to hyperventilate. "I'll go to Newfoundland, I'll get on a plane and I'll fly there, right now." She was crying and shaking at the same time.

"Miss. Glew we don't know what we're going to find once we get there. It might just be a clue to the rest of the prophecy and then we might have to go somewhere else." Rachel calmly stated, but her face looked like she was beside herself with regret.

"I have to do something." Sophie whipped her face with a paper towel. "Please tell me the whole prophesy."

Trent took a breath, "In Vin-land seven heroes will assemble; The screams of the sea will cause the earth to tremble; From Dragon's Lair only silver may be taken; Those who were once thought dead will soon awaken."

Sophie gasped.

The Iris message started to flicker.

"Miss. Glew we're almost out of time. We'll call you again when we know what we're doing next," Rachel promised.

"Wait, Meredith and Trent I love you. And Mermaid remember that I made you promise never…"

"_Please Deposit another Drachma."_

"I don't have anymore." Meredith turned back toward Rachel.

"Neither do I, I'm sorry."

Trent looked back at the shower. It looked like nothing had ever happened.

Meredith sniffled and then she whipped her face with her sleeve.

"She'll be okay, Mermaid. Mom's just over protective, that's all." Trent gave her a hug, something that he rarely did since he was little.

"Thanks Sponge." She kissed the top of his head. "I feel so bad; I should have called her the night of the Ball. But I didn't think of doing that." She sniffled, "I'm so stupid and selfish, it's unreal."

Rachel looked down and sighed, "You guys are lucky that your mom cares so much about you. Everything will work out the way it's meant to be, you'll see." She gave them a half smile, "come on, I have a feeling Lyra's going to be running in here any minute."

The following day Trent was up early, yeah real shocker, but this was a once in a life time opportunity. At least that was the way he saw it. He was back at the bow of the ship. The temperature had dropped to near freezing, but it didn't bother him.

Off the stern side of the yacht a long snake like sea monster dipped in and out of the waves. Trent gulped he wasn't sure if the monster was friendly or not. A few seconds later another two appeared by its side.

"Leviathans!" Meredith joined him. She looked surprised and well kind of freaked out.

"Are they friendly?" Trent knew that if there were monsters on land there had to be monsters in the sea as well.

"I have no idea! Maybe we should go inside. This way they might not notice us." She started to edge back from the rails.

Several more just popped out of the water, "I… I think that's a good idea." He slowly backed up and into his sister.

They cautiously made their way back toward the door as another dozen popped out of the water.

"Look at those dolphins!" The second in command, who had steered the ship overnight pointed out as they entered the bridge. He gave them a smile, "you should be taking photographs."

"Oh… I umm… forgot my camera." Trent tried to give the guy a look of disappointment. He looked back over his shoulder at Meredith.

"We're going to watch them while we eat. Can I get you anything?"

"No, little lady, I'm good. I got me a fresh cup of Joe, right here." He pointed to his coffee mug.

"Okay," She gave him a smile before pulling Trent through the door that lead into the upper Salon.

"We should be safe in here, right?" Trent swallowed.

"I hope so." Meredith went straight toward her bag of provisions that they dumped along the wall. She pulled out two bottles of Febreze. "Start spraying everything."

Trent took one of the bottles. "Ok…" He smirked seeing the label. After squirting several rounds, he looked back over toward Meredith who was spraying the door knobs. "Do you think Leviathans have noses?"

"I… I don't know. I'll finish up here, go do the downstairs Salon." She continued to spray the perimeter of the room.

Trent sprayed the rail that lead down the stairs. He nearly ran into a fairly sleepy looking Rachel.

"What are you doing?" Her hair was unkempt and her pajama didn't match.

"Spraying down the interior." He sprayed Rachel.

She coughed and waved the mist from her face. With a raised a brow she asked, "Why?"

"Leviathans off the port side of the ship." He sprayed the floor as well.

"Do you do this often?" She asked.

"Yep, we spray everything, and we wash everything as often as we can. This way our sent isn't as potent." The yacht rocked a bit back and forth. Luckily, Trent sensed the pod of Leviathan's changing directions.

After spraying everything down, showering, and eating breakfast they watched a movie. The twins were still experiencing motion sickness. Rachel didn't mind giving up the master bedroom to them so that they could use the attached bathroom whenever they needed it.

By midday the Captain came on over the intercom_. "We'll be reaching Saint Anthony, Newfoundland, shortly. With any luck our reserve tank will take us the rest of the way and then we can refuel once in port."_ She paused, _"Miss Dare, I called a head and there were no limos available. However they do have car rentals. Shall I order you one?"_

Rachel walked over to the intercom and pressed the response button. "Yes, that will be great. Also make sure that they can give us directions to the Viking colony. We're going to be performing the Beowulf saga for my multimedia class."

"_Yes, Miss Dare. Shall I find out if there are any Viking costumes available as well?" _

"That would be great, thank you." Rachel turned back toward everyone and smirked, "what? I need to have some excuse for coming up here. I have a 'C' in that class right now. This will pull me up to an 'A' for sure."


	8. The Crash

**Chapter Eight: The Crash**

**Trent**

To Trent's disappointment, they had to drive about an hour to get to the Viking colony, and there weren't too many radio stations to listen to on the drive.

Rachel drove them, even though Skylar tried to convince her that she should stay in the yacht.

"Could you turn up the heat?" Lyra asked from the back seat of the van.

"Yeah, sure." Rachel looked down at the panel on the dash board. The road was pretty straight, and she kept looking up every few seconds. When she couldn't figure it out she looked over toward Meredith who was sitting shotgun. "A little help?"

Meredith was looking out the window, "huh?"

"Mermaid, with the heat." Rachel looked back at the road.

"Oh, right…" She looked down at the dashboard and fiddled with several nobs.

"What are you daydreaming about now, Mermaid, that hell boy?" Trent snickered. He maybe young, but he wasn't blind. Plus, he knew his sister, especially when she acted different around other people.

"What! Do you have a crush on that guy?" Zillah leaned forward from her seat next to Trent.

"Huh? I was just thinking about the dream I had last night when I noticed that fog rolling in?" She pointed toward the window.

Trent looked out the window and frowned, it was coming in fast. "Is that normal for the North Atlantic?" He looked over his shoulder at Skylar and Lyra in the back seat.

"I don't know," They said at the same time. Trent defiantly noted that Lyra's hair started to turn grey.

"I don't think that's normal fog," Rachel stepped on the gas. "Buckle up."

Trent leaned forward and saw that she was pushing eighty miles per hour. He tightened his seat belt as he looked at the fog. It was rushing up from over the ocean.

"It's on the other side too!" Zillah's voice went up an octave.

"It's rolling in fast from behind!" Lyra reported.

"I hate to break it to you, but we're driving into it!" Meredith reached back to grip Trent's arm.

"Rachel, slow down!" Skylar ordered. "We're being boxed in, if you hit something, we're all dead."

She took her foot off the gas and eased on the break as the fog boxed them in. Trent held onto his sister's hand as the car slowed down. The dim sunlight was blocked by the fog. It turned as dark as night almost instantaneously. White flashes passed by the side windows.

"Shit! Is that lightning?" Zillah looked back at Skylar.

"I don't know. Though if it is, we should be safe as long as we stay in the van." He reached over and put his hand on her shoulder.

Another series of flashes passed.

"I don't feel any electricity in the air, besides there is no freaking thunder. No thunder, no lightning," Lyra's hair was now as black as it could get.

"Maybe you should stop the car?" Trent gulped. Whatever was happening, it was freaking everyone out.

"Shut up, and let me drive, okay. I kind of have to slow down first before stopping," Rachel sounded nervous.

"I'm going to switch on the hazards," Mermaid dropped Trent's hand in order to touched a button on the dashboard.

Trent saw that their speed was now around forty five miles per hour and declining. Another series of flashes rocked the van. Another few seconds and the car's speed declined to twenty five miles per hour. Trent held his breath.

"We're going to be sitting ducks," Rachel shook her head, and pressed her foot completely down on the gas. The van's engine whined before pushing them forward.

Shrieks resonated behind them and for about a minute the flashes were behind them.

"They're flying monsters!" Zillah gasped with her body half way turned toward the back window. "They're coming after us."

Rachel raced the van down the road deeper into the fog. Before they knew it they had reached a sharp curve in the road.

It happened just too fast. One minute they were speeding along the road and then the next they were floating up in the air and spinning. The first blow was the hardest. It jolted him into his seat belt so hard that he felt like his teeth were being knocked into his skull. All the glass windows broke as the air bags deployed. Metal from the roof of the van scraped along the road before rolling downhill. The screaming was deafening. The girls were just as loud as the sound of the impact. Even when the car came to a halt the ground was still shaking beneath them as everything faded around him.

* * *

><p>A night mare, that's all it was. At least that's what he expected it to have been. He should be sleeping on that feather mattress in the tiny guest cabin on Rachel's yacht. He would be able to warn them of the fog, and they could avoid it by staying in port until the next day.<p>

With a yawn he opened his crusty eyes. The world was blurry for a few seconds, but as he regained focus he didn't see a white ceiling. Instead he saw one that was made out of thick wooden logs with spears as rafters.

Trent sat up way too quickly. A sharp pain struck his chest.

"Easy there," a young six or seven year old girl with dirty blond hair came running toward him with cup.

Trent gasped several times as white spots danced across his eyes.

The girl sat on the cot next to him. "You have a couple of broken ribs." She held the cup to his lips. "Drink this, it will help heal them."

As Tent drank, he felt the girl's hand on his chest. She chanted in a sing song type of manner that made the maddening pain easy into a dull one.

"Better?" Her warm hazel eyes stared up into his.

"Yes," he held her hand on his chest. "I think so," he looked around. He was in a really large log cabin. The walls and pillars had golden patterns too far away to actually be able to tell what they looked like. "Where am I?"

"Valhalla, Silly. Where do you think the Valkyrie were going to take you?" She rolled her eyes and slid off the cot.

Trent shook his head as his head was unable to process what she was saying. "Meredith! Where is my sister?"

The girl tilted her unkempt dirty blond head, "Folkvang. Girls sleep there, boys sleep here. The other boy is at the other end of the hall. His shoulder was torn out of the scapula."

"I don't understand what you're saying." He pulled the blankets off of his thighs and tried to stand. A dizzy spell over took him as he wobbled on his feet.

"Whoa, you should stay in bed a little longer." The girl tried to pull him down.

He shook his head, "no, I'm going to go see my sister, and my friends." His brows knitted together. There were tons of cots in this this place. More than he could estimate. There weren't any blankets on them; in fact it looked like no one slept in them at all. His cot on the other hand had a nice feather mattress with a forest green wool blanket on it. At the foot of the cot was an iron box with his shoes on top of it. He took a few steps and sat back down on the cot. When he reached over to put his shoes on the pain in his chest returned.

"You're a stubborn one, aren't you?" The girl stomped her foot. "My father warned me that you wouldn't listen." She quickly moved over to the footlocker and picked up the shoes. "Let me help you put these on."

Trent blinked again as if he were really trying hard to wake up. "I still don't understand anything you're saying."

"I'm speaking in English! Not French or Greek, English! Geeze!" She pulled loose the laces, and then winced, "gods when was the last time you washed these things." She blinked back a few tears.

"Umm… never… they really do smell? I thought my sister was just messing with me."

"Oh, yeah they smell. You need a new pair, look you've worn holes into them!" She pointed to the one that was covered with duct tape on the inside.

Trent's face turned bright red. "Just put it on my foot!" His hands gripped the sides of the cot. He didn't feel like explaining to this kid that his mother didn't make much money, so he didn't bother her with asking for stupid stuff like new sneakers every few months.

After the girl put the shoe on his foot and tightened the laces she looked up at his face, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you." She then quickly picked up the other shoe and loosened the laces.

"You didn't embarrass me," Trent defensively stated. He took a deep breath, in the back of his mind he recalled what his mother told him to do when he was feeling angry. Make a joke. Not a hurtful one, but a funny one. It will make you feel better. "Now, if you saw my underwear, that would have been embarrassing," He did his best to crack a smile.

Now the girl's face was turning a bright shade of strawberry red. She stood and offered him her hand. "Come on, hero; let's see if your friends' conditions have improved."

"Their conditions?" His embarrassment was quickly forgotten.

"Each of you were hurt really badly. The Valkyrie flew you here, but no one lives here but ghosts. This camp has been abandoned for centuries," she took his hand.

"Look, you're like six, please talk like a six year old."

She stomped her foot, "I'm a daughter of Apollo, I can talk anyway I want to!" She pulled her hand from his and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I… I'm sorry? That's cool, you're a daughter of Apollo, isn't he like Greek, and didn't you say something about Valhalla and Valkyrie? Those things just don't go together."

She stuck her chin up as they walked down the long row of empty cots, "Does the sun touch all the lands on the earth?"

"Umm… most of the time? It doesn't touch the North and South Pole during some of the months… OUCH! DON'T pinch me!" Trent rubbed his arm.

"Baby!" She turned around and started to walk backwards. "The sun is worshiped in every ancient civilization. My dad can be in many different places at the same time. He always transformed to suit the needs of the civilization that was worshiping him. Both Greeks and Romans called him Apollo, the Norse called him Sol. Well… they thought he was a girl, but that doesn't matter, gods can change genders if they want to. Though," she whispered, "between you and me, I heard that dad doesn't like being a girl too much. He rather stay in his ultra-cool form as Apollo."

"You're the most confusing kid on the planet." Trent's brows were together again. He looked back to see that his cot was like a football field away. "How big is this place?"

"Huge. Ginormous, get over it."

Trent was about to ask the girl another question when the sounds of moans broke his concentration. His eyes shifted to find Skylar on a cot about ten yards away. He tried to sprint over toward his side, but was hit with a wave of pain.

"IDIOT, don't run!" The girl quickly caught up to him.

"Roxie, I told you to keep him in his cot." Another girl with the same color hair and facial features scolded the six year old. She was sitting next to Skylar mixing something in a small pot.

"I tried, Kayla, I really did, but he's really worried about his sister and his friends."

The tone of her voice made Trent realize that she was going to get into trouble, "She's right, I wouldn't stay in my cot."

"Boys…" the older girl muttered. She looked up at him and straight into his eyes, "you know we had to travel here by Hell Hound! You know what that does to children of Apollo?"

"Puts them in a really bad mood?" Trent blinked, "OUCH! Stop pinching me!" He crossed his fingers and backed away from Roxie.

Skylar moaned again. Beads of sweat glided down the side of his face. A white bandage was tightly bounded across his shoulder and chest.

"What happened to him?"

"Like you, he was injured in the crash. The Valkyrie said it looked like he stretched his body too far forward and was reaching over toward the seat in front of him." She shook her head, "his arm was almost completely pulled off; only some ligaments held it attached to his body."

Trent's jaw dropped, he looked back at Skylar, "but it's going to be okay?"

The girl slowly nodded, "give it a few more days of treatments and it will be fine."

"Kayla's one of the best healers in our cabin, she's been working on him for the last two days," Roxie took his hand once again.

"Two days?"

"Yep, you slept for two days," She shrugged, "you had a lot of bruises too. They're gone now."

"My mom must be going out of her mind. We promised her we would call her when we got to Vin-land." He looked down at the wooden floor. "Can I go see my sister now?"

The two Apollo girls exchanged looks, "which one was she?" The older one asked.

"Meredith was sitting shotgun. Why? Is…" Trent took a deep breath, "Is she dead?"

Kayla avoided answering the question, "all of the girls' injuries are different." She motioned to the boy in the bed, "he nearly crushed the girl in front of him. I think he was trying to protect her, but instead he broke several of her ribs. The one sitting next to him had seatbelt burn and a good gash in her arm with a blow to her head. Rachel… my dad healed her otherwise she would have died."

"And my sister?" Trent felt an overwhelming wave of dread.

"The glass from the windshield tore her up pretty good. She was thrown out of the car and rolled down the cliff and landed in the ocean. No one's seen her since."


	9. Camp Asgard

**Chapter Nine: Camp Asgard**

**Zillah**

For a split second, Zillah thought she was in the mausoleum she hid out in for about a month outside of Philadelphia. The air was cold, like the mausoleum, but the floor wasn't a bunch of newspapers it was a feather mattress.

No, the last few months weren't a dream. She had a family now and friends that cared about her. Every night she swore she would never let them down and she would never betray their trust or disappoint them. Sure there were a lot of adjustments she had to make. Sophie wasn't like her mother. No one was like her mother.

Susanne O'Shea had a simple elegance about her. She had a willowy frame with the look of a porcelain doll. She loved flowers, and kept vases of them on every free surface in their apartment above her flower shop.

"Mommy, why do you love flowers so much?" A five year old Zillah with two missing teeth and a horrible lisp sat at their tiny kitchen table coloring in her Disney Princesses book. She reached for the bouquet of red roses and white lilies on the table.

Her mother stood in front of the kitchen sink cleaning dishes. She brushed her pin straight henna red hair over her should as she looked at her daughter. "They make everything a little bit nicer."

"Like what?" She touched a rose and pouted as it started turned brown.

Her mother knelt down next to her and touched the wilted rose; it sprung back to life, "death."

"Huh?" Zillah touched the lily and nothing happened.

"Well, a long time ago when someone died their body was placed in their family's living room for all of their neighbors to come and say good-bye. To mask the smell of death in the house, all of the neighbors would bring flowers." She tweaked her nose.

"Oh, is that why you have to make so many arrangements for funerals?" She kicked her legs back and forth.

"That's right." Susanne picked up her dish towel that she left on the table.

"Ummm…" Zillah picked up one of her crayons.

"Ummm..?" Susanne tilted her head.

"I don't know mama, even with all the flowers there's nothing nice about death." She picked up a different crayon.

"Death can be scary, it can be painful, but it's a part of life, and that in itself makes it beautiful," Susanne whispered.

Zillah whipped several salty tears from her eyes with bandaged hands. She blinked several times as she looked at her wrists. The memory of her mother faded to the back of her mind's eye.

"You're awake!" Trent exclaimed.

Zillah turned her head toward the sound of his voice, "yeah I guess so. What's going on?"

Trent looked past her, "Roxie get her that stuff you gave me before!"

"Ok!" Shouted a cheery little girl.

Trent took in a deep breath, but winced slightly as if it pained him. "We're at Camp Asgard."

"Camp Asgard?" Zillah tried to sit up, but stopped. She gasped as she felt like an elephant was sitting on top of her chest.

"Yeah, we were in a car crash. The seatbelts worked a bit too well, if you ask me." He rubbed his chest, "Skylar tried to protect you, and well he broke a couple of your ribs in the process."

The car crash… Zillah tried to remember it. There was fog, and they were slowing down, and then they speed up really fast. After that, she couldn't remember what happened. "Is every okay?"

Trent's green eyes got all watery. "We're all recovering, but um…Zillah… my Mermaid is missing. The Valkyrie are still searching for her, but it's been two days…"

The little girl came running up to the cot she was laying on and pressed a cup to her lips. "Drink this," She ordered.

Zillah's brows knitted together as she processed the news. She took several large gulps of the silvery liquid. It tasted like the chamomile tea her mother used to make for her.

"Trent!" Lyra exclaimed as she ran up to them. She had a bandage on her head, and another one on her arm, but other than that she looked fine.

"Are they back?" He quickly stood, and then winced.

"Yeah, they're back." She turned her sky blue gaze on Zillah, "welcome back to the land of the living."

Zillah swallowed the rest of the drink, and then she whipped her lip, "thanks." When she tried to sit up the pain had lessened. "Who's back?"

"The Valkyrie, come on, you'll want to see them." Lyra crossed over toward the cot and with the little girl's help, got Zillah's shoes on and then they helped her stand.

Zillah couldn't believe her eyes. They were in a grand hall that had to be at least several football fields long and at least one football field wide. Along one side of the hall was a long row of cots with foot lockers and on the opposite side was a really long dining room table with benches pushed under it. Gold and silver flowers were wrapped around the pillars that held up the structure. Their vines wrapped around the rafters causing the ceiling to sparkle.

Lyra took the lead, they walked about a hundred yards and then they went through one of the largest doors Zillah had ever seen in her entire life. That in itself had to be at least as large as a field goal post.

Cool northern air greeted them as they made their way out doors. In front of her lay a large field that looked like it was the size of Central Park. Ghostly spectrums were broken up into groups. They were warriors from all different periods in history. Some looked like they were wearing desert camouflage. They were practicing drills moving in between nearly invisible buildings. Some looked like they were popping out of trenches, while others were making lines and practicing their volleys.

"What's going on?" Zillah couldn't believe her eyes. It would have been amazing to see all of these men and women alive, but she knew deep down in her gut that they were in fact dead.

"They're training," stated a woman with a soft but firm voice. She lifted a golden helmet with silver feathers off the crown of her head. Long dark brown hairs cascaded past her shoulders and over a gold breastplate with silver lightning bolts edged over a long sleeved green t-shirt.

Zillah blinked, the woman had appeared out of nowhere.

"What do you mean they're training? Training for what?" Lyra asked as her hair started to turn grey.

The young woman turned toward her and narrowed her eyes for a split second. "Ragnarok. Well, the next Ragnarok, there has been at least two that I know of that's take place already." She tilted her head, "you must be famished. My sisters have prepared a meal for you over in Valhalla." She motioned to a tiny cabin about fifty yards away. It wasn't much to look at, and well Zillah wondered if they would all be able to fit inside of it.

"That's Valhalla?" Zillah raised a brow.

"It's much bigger inside," Trent spoke up, "it's like ginormous, right Roxie?" He looked down at the young girl who was holding his hand.

She giggled, "right." She pointed back toward the building they just left. "Look that one looks small now too, but it was ginormous inside."

Zillah looked back over her shoulder at the building. It looked like it was the same size as the one they were about to enter.

Trent was right; the inside of the hall was ginormous. The structure of the inside was much more masculine.

"Do the ghosts actually eat and sleep in here?" Trent asked their guide.

"Sort of. The Einherjar don't really eat, it's more like the act of eating that they enjoy. In the old days, they would sit side by side with the demigods and exchange stories while they ate." As she escorted them over to the one end of the table they passed a girl with dirty blond hair sitting next to a cot.

Zillah's heart skipped a beat. Skylar was laying on the cot with his shirt off and a whole bunch of bandages across his chest and should. "Skylar?" She broke away from the group and as if in a trance she walked over toward the cot and knelt down next to it.

"He'll be alright." The other girl yawned.

Zillah took his good hand in hers, "this is my fault."

"It's my brother's own damn fault, not yours. He's always got to try to protect everyone." Lyra stood in front of the footlocker with a scowl on her brow and her black hair draped over her shoulders like a cloak.

"As my mom would say, what's done is done and there is no turning back." Trent chewed his lip as it started to quiver. He turned toward Roxie, "I hate to ask, but do you have a golden drachma I could borrow?"

The little girl didn't even think about it. She pushed her free hand into her pocket and pulled one out. "Here you go." She dropped it into the palm of his hand.

Zillah looked up from Skylar's pained face toward the older blond haired girl. She was frowning at Roxie, but didn't say anything.

Another girl with short chopped sandy blond hair and freckles appeared out of thin air next to their guide. "Brenda, lunch is ready." She wasn't wearing any armor but she had the same color long sleeve t-shirt as Brenda on. The inscription on the front of the shirt was written in runes. Zillah could almost swear it said _Camp Asgard, Warriors of the North United_. In the center of the runes was a hammer inside of a lightning bolt.

"Very well," Brenda, their guide, motioned toward the dirty blond haired girl sitting next to Skylar. "Come daughter of Apollo, your healing will do him no good if there is no strength behind it. Jerri will sit with him, her healing skills may not be as advanced as yours but she's been studying her scrolls for the past three winters and does a good enough job with our own injuries."

Jerri, the freckled girl blushed, "I won't let anything bad happen to him, promise."

"I'll hold you to that promise," Lyra was still scowling. She turned and stomped her way over toward the table.

Jerri's brown eyes widened for a split second.

"They're twins," Trent quickly whispered, "she's angry at herself for getting off so easily." He shook his head as if he were explaining his own inner turmoil.

Jerri walked over toward the daughter of Apollo and sat down in her seat. She placed her hand on Skylar's shoulder and started to chant in a strange language.

Trent placed his hand on Zillah's shoulder. "Come on, the food's going to get cold."

Part of Zillah's mind ached at recognition, and part of it was still confused by the whole situation.


	10. The Valkyrie

**Chapter Ten: The Valkyrie**

_Zillah_

Zillah wasn't sure how many of the Valkyrie were actually at Camp Asgard. She wasn't even sure if they were a hundred percent friendly. Some ate with their full armor on, some had on their breastplates, but their combat Xena looking leg armor and boots were off. Then there were a couple of them that just had on the long sleeved green t-shirt and the same type of jeans that Jerri was wearing. The non-lethal looking ones were the easiest to keep track of. On the back of their t-shirt were their name and a number, kind of like a football jersey.

"You're positive, my sister isn't dead?" Trent asked with a mouth full of potatoes.

Brenda placed down her fork, as if her patients were running thin.

Selma, the Valkyrie that was sitting across from Brenda, replied, "For the third time, we have not sensed your sister's demise. If we had, we would have been able to locate her before she would reach the river Gjoll."

"That's like the river Styx, right?" Roxie asked.

Brenda shrugged, "I suppose so. Though do be careful when you try to translate the archetypes between our different worlds. There are some gods that are only in the Greek, Egyptian, Roman, and Norse states that never cross over, and then there are gods that travel between all of the different states. They may change forms, personalities and sometimes genders to suit the needs of the culture that worshiped them."

"Like Apollo and Artemis! They are Sol and Mani in this world, right?" Roxie looked so pleased with herself.

Several of the Valkyrie exchanged looks as they silently ate. Apparently Brenda was not only their guide, but the leader of the Valkyrie.

Selma snorted.

Brenda tilted her head to the side, "Perhaps at one time. However, Sol and Mani are dead as are most of the Norse gods you may be able to identify."

"Wait, gods can't die, their gods, immortal, that means no dying," Lyra's scowl was back as was her black hair.

"Is not your President Washington an immortal; or perhaps Christopher Columbus, Mozart, or any number of political or military leaders?" Selma brushed her honey blond braid over her shoulder before sipping from her cup.

"No, they're dead, that's for sure," Zillah stated.

"Maybe," Brenda shrugged, "maybe not. Their names will live on forever, and people will tell their stories for centuries to come. In a sense they are immortal, their memory will live on. Just like your Greek and Roman gods. People remember them, they read about them, they think of them and in those thoughts and in those myths they live on."

"Isn't it the same for the Norse gods? Everyone has heard of Odin and Thor," Trent pointed out.

Selma rolled her eyes.

"That's only recently. The difference is that the gods of the south had their stories written down; whereas the gods of the north did not. All that you know of the Norse gods comes from a hand full of stories that were written down from Iceland hundreds of years after they had disappeared from the European continent or from Roman records." She popped a piece of an apple into her mouth.

"You told us that the demigods used to eat and sleep here, is that why this camp has been abandoned, because there are no gods to make new demigods?" Kayla joined the conversation. Up until this point she looked pretty much out of it.

"Yes and no, some of the Valkyrie are Norse demigoddesses. Just like there are a couple amongst the Hunters of Artemis, the Amazons and the Vestal Virgins." Brenda ate another piece of an apple. "That brings me to the question of all of you. How is it that you were able to draw the attention of the Gagana? They normally don't appear this far west."

Zillah looked toward Lyra who was looking at Trent who was looking over toward the sleeping Skylar about fifty yards away. They then switched and looked at each other.

"Ummm… we smell? My mom thinks that our sent attracts monsters. She has my sisters and me sow," Trent pulled off Skylar's oversized sweatshirt and then he unzipped his blue hoodie. He unsnapped a few buttons and pulled out an air freshener. "These things into our clothes to mask our sent." He shrugged, "I guess we're just too clean right now. Normally Meredith, Zillah and I go swimming at the YMCA every day to get that nasty chlorine smell stick to our sink as well."

"Or we fabreeze the shit out of our clothes," Zillah shrugged.

Kayla visibly counted everyone that was there, "five half-bloods in one car with the Oracle of Delphi driving, you were a monster magnate. Especially if you had any weapons on you."

"I don't have any weapons," Trent looked to Lyra and then Zillah.

"Skylar and I normally just use our fists. It gets so nasty at times, especially when we have to rip the heads off of the snake monsters." Lyra shrugged and then she looked at her half eaten plate of food. She pushed it away as if the thought of eating anything else made her sick.

Zillah unclipped her hair. "I have this." She stood and backed up away from everyone. She didn't think it was too wise to show them, but if they found out later that she had a concealed weapon on her than it might make things a bit more complicated. She straightened the clip and it turned into a short silver sword.

Brenda stood and approached Zillah. "May I?"

Zillah handed her the sword. She shifted her eyes to find that all of the Valkyrie had stopped eating. Even Selma looked kind of impressed.

Brenda studied the blade for a moment before looking down at Zillah, "where did you acquire this weapon?"

"Umm… my mom gave it to me," Zillah took it back and folded it back into a clip.

"And where did she get it?"

"I don't know." She put it back into her hair.

Brenda looked lost in thought for a moment, "that is a dwarf's blade. It was once called,_ Ridill_."

Zillah sat back down, "Is that a bad thing?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Why don't you tell me everything you know up until today?"

Zillah didn't like telling Brenda and the Valkyrie all of their business, but she didn't feel like she had much of a choice. So, she started at the beginning when she first found the clip. Trent and then Lyra went next.

Brenda listened to everything they had to say. Several of the Valkyrie cleared away their plates and refilled their cups.

By the time they were done, the ghosts known as the Einherjar entered the hall. As they walked in they spoke loudly in their own languages. Some were reassembling their bodies, while others were pulling pranks on their friends by hiding their arms or their heads.

"My sisters and I need to discuss what we have learned here today. Please feel free to converse with the Einherjar, eat some more, or rest. Several of my sisters will remain in this hall if you are in need of anything else." With that Brenda and all of the lethal looking Valkyrie, including Selma disappeared. Those that remained moved about so quickly that Zillah had a hard time keeping track of where they were at any given moment.

Kayla stood, "I should get back to Skylar." She stretched her arms over her head as if she were going to run a mile. She then turned her gaze on Roxie, "you should be heading home. You've been a big help, but I think I can handle it from here."

Roxie was about to say something when a loud moaning broke her concentration.

Zillah turned toward the sound to find Skylar sitting up in his cot.


	11. The Twins Reunion

**Chapter Eleven: The Twins Reunion**

**Lyra**

Lyra's brows knitted together as she listened to Kayla. Three healers from Camp Half Blood left the previous night with Nico, and now a forth one was going to leave too. Though, she was like young enough to be illiterate, but she still seemed to be pretty powerful. Lyra bit her lip as her brooding reached death con three.

Her thoughts shifted through her head with lighting speed as she closed her eyes. Out of everyone, she was the only one awake when the Valkyrie found them.

The van rolled so many times that a couple of the seats ripped including hers. It flung her forward causing her to hit her head on the ceiling. She unbuckled her seatbelt and fell forward onto a shard of glass. White dots danced across her eyes as numbness rippled through her system. She didn't know how long she lay there, but gradually her survival instincts beat out the shock.

"Skylar?" She blinked several times as she tried to focus on her brother. He was hanging from the ceiling, but something wasn't right. She crawled forward and pushed Trent's head forward. "Trent, wake up, something's wrong with my brother."

No response.

Lyra tried to crawl to the front of the van, but the windshield was blown out and the passenger seat was missing.

It was all just too much for her to process. The world started to spin out of control as her breathing increased.

Above the wreck thunder rumbled, and lighting created a split second long source of light.

Her brother and her friends were hurt… "Please…," she prayed. "I've never asked you for anything in my entire life. Please help us."

A frosty chill enveloped the van as the fog blocked the last fragments of Lyra's visible sight.

Screeches of what sounded like pissed off birds, pieced the air, and a split second the van began to rock as metal scrapped the undercarriage.

Then there was nothing but silence.

Lyra lay there shaking. Her limps ached, and her North Face Oso hoodie soaked up the mix of liquids on the roof of the van. She knew she didn't stand a chance; she was barely able to keep her eyes open and her brain felt like it wanted to ooze out of her skull from all of the pressure.

Lightning flashed and the fog was swept away. Multiple neighs followed by the clanging of metal and the deafening screeches vibrated through the van.

"Is anyone alive in there?" An armor clad female squatted next to the van.

Lyra couldn't tell what she looked like, but each time the lighting struck, her armor lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Yes… please help us." Lyra's eyes rolled as her lids tried to pull themselves shut.

The warrior disappeared as the van rolled over.

Lyra fell back down onto the console in-between the driver and passenger seat. The last thing she remembered was seeing the sliding door being ripped off its hinges.

The moaning broke Lyra's flashback.

"SKYLAR!" Lyra sprinted over to her brother. She threw her arms around his waist and squeezed.

"Ly..ra.. can't… breath!"

Her brother's face was beet red. "Sorry!" She pulled herself off of him, "you're awake! I can't believe it. Do you feel okay? Does your shoulder hurt? Do you remember what happened?"

"Hold the questions." Kayla ran up behind them, "he needs to rest."

Skylar winced as he raised his hand. He wiggled his fingers and frowned. "Was I sleeping on this arm?"

"No," an extremely pale looking Jerry stated, "does it feel like you slept on it?"

He nodded.

"That's a good sign," Jerry smiled.

Lyra glanced over to Kayla. Her brows were knitted together as she studied the air around Skylar. Lyra couldn't put her finger on it but it seemed like Kayla wasn't entirely thrilled that Skylar was doing much better than before.

It took Skylar about a minute for his focus to turn from his arm to his surroundings, but when he finally realized they weren't in back at school he started to ask questions.

Lyra sat next to her brother and quietly spoke to him as Jerry brought Skylar a tray of food. Jerry also placed a small plate of broken up bread on a small night stand several feet away from Skylar's bed. A raven flew out from the golden spear rafters. It plucked at the pieces of bread as the rest of the group broke up into small groups.

Trent and Zillah went outside to Iris message their mom. Kayla and Roxie followed them out to Iris message Camp Half-Blood.

"Skylar, you scared the shit out of me, do you know that?" Lyra whipped the tears off of her cheeks after she finished answering his last question.

He looked down at his empty plate, and shook his head. "I don't know what possessed me to do that, I'm sorry, Sis."

Jerry must have sensed they needed a moment alone, because she picked up his dirty dishes and disappeared.

"As soon as we're near an outlet, I'll zap you and you'll feel as good as new, okay?" She gave him a knowing smile. Her borrowed dagger was pressed securely against her calf with her Ugg boot holding it in place. Sure she should have told the Brenda about it. But uhh… she didn't want Kayla to recognize it and then demand that she hand it over so that she could return it to its rightful owner. That's something Lyra wanted to do herself.

Skylar frowned, "that might give away our little secret." He shrugged and then winced.

The raven flew over to Skylar's cot. It started to pick the fallen bits of crumbs off of his blanket.

"Careful," Lyra bit her lip as she tried to concentrate on the pained look in his eyes. "Mermaid knows," She looked down and sighed.

"She'll turn up, most likely in Greenland or Iceland but she'll find her way home." He gave his sister half a smile.

Lyra raised a blond brow, "what do you know that you're not telling me?"

Skylar rolled his eyes, "water heals her, her nickname is Mermaid, and every time I touch her I'm the one that gets shocked. Hmmm… I wonder what element her godly daddy falls under?"

"Oh yeah, you're right. Still do you really think Sophie…" she shook her head, "never mind that, we have to figure out how to get out of her. I don't know what it is, but something just doesn't feel right."

Skylar slowly nodded in agreement as his gaze fixed on a group of British Dragoons as they played keep away with a Napoleonic soldier's head. The poor ghost stomped his foot, and drew his sword. A Prussian Captain caught the head as it flew across several tables. He marched it back to its rightful owner and placed it on top of its empty shoulders.

"Hmmm… thousands of dead military types partying… yeah, doesn't really feel right either." He didn't dare to smile.

Out of the empty space next to Skylar's cot, the flash of a green long sleeve t-shirt appeared and solidified. "Sorry, to interrupt, but Princess Brenda would like you to join the Diar in Gladsheim."

The raven flew off of the blanket and circled around them before flying outside.

Lyra stood. She moved over to opposite side of the cot to help Skylar put on his boots and coat.

Skylar grinded his teeth and the color drained from his face as he became completely vertical.

"Easy Big Guy. Take a second," Jerry stood on his injured side, "do you think you can walk? I can get one of our horses to carry you."

Lyra knew he wasn't doing too well, but she also knew he didn't want to show any signs of weakness.

"I'll be fine," some of the color returned to his face. His eyes focused on the door and he started to walk while leaning part of his weight on his sister. "What is Gladsheim and the Diar?"

Lyra almost grinned, that was her brother, always trying to think of the next step.

Jerry kept a neutral expression, "You really don't know much about your own ancestry, do you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lyra snapped.

"Oh well…" She cautiously regarded Lyra, "while I was healing Skylar he was speaking in norsk… I assumed you were from Norway."

Lyra felt the heat buildup under her cheeks, "uh… yeah, our mother's family is from there…" She shifted her brother's weight as they walked out of Valhalla. With very little vegetation blocking the her vision, the night sky open to them sparkling with millions of stars that were generally not seen in urban areas Lyra grew up in.

"Anyway, back before the last Ragnarok, twelve of the male gods would meet in the hall known as Gladsheim. They ruled Asgard while Odin wondered. They became known as the Diar or in layman's terms, the judges. Nowadays, we use Gladsheim as our meeting hall since the gods have either died or abandoned us."

"And yet you still collect the spirits of the dead? Why bother?" Lyra's brows knit together.

Jerry shrugged, "we figured that we wouldn't be around if it didn't need to be done." She guided them off the cobble stone path. Right before their feet touched the ground, new stones popped up in a way that prevented them from stepping on the grass.

After several minutes of walking in the dark in that general direction, they worked their way toward a hill. Steps appeared for them allowing them to ascend it without much difficulty.

Lyra inwardly winced as she could feel Skylar's breathing increase. Normally this hill would have been a piece of cake for them to climb, but he wasn't completely recovered yet. "We can stop and rest a bit," she whispered.

"No." Skylar's brow was dripping in sweat.

When they reached the flat portion at the top of the hill, they found a path leading to a small log cabin.

"That's Gladsheim?" Lyra asked.

"Yes, that's Gladsheim. Come along, you don't want to keep the Diar waiting." Jerry disappeared in a flash.


	12. Gladsheim

**Chapter Twelve: Gladsheim**

_**Lyra**_

Impressive isn't the best word to describe Gladsheim, maybe spectacular or fantastic? Lyra wasn't sure. All she knew was that when she stepped through that threshold, she wasn't in Canada anymore. In fact, it kind of felt like another planet. The inner foyer could put all the palaces of Europe to shame. The walls themselves were of pure platinum with gold, silver, and bronze details. Twelve marble Norse warriors were divided by a two story platinum door with a triple interlocking triangle at its center. Each of the statues looked like they represented different people. One held a hammer, one was missing a hand, and one looked so beautiful and kind that he seemed completely out of place.

The doors silently swung inwards revealing a massive hall the size of a modern day football stadium. Behind them the doors closed and the wall solidified into a gold and silver fresco of a large battle with the hammer dude fighting a serpent, the one eyed guy fighting a wolf, and several other battle simultaneously taking place.

"I guess there is no turning back…" Sparks flickered across Skylar's eyes.

Lyra knew exactly how he felt. They were trapped with no means of escape. Not that there seemed to be any current reason to think of an escape, but that's what always came to mind whenever they were someplace new.

She took in a deep breath and started forward.

Skylar pulled his weight off of his sister, and walked forward by himself. He gave his sister a look that suggested, "show no weakness."

Anywhere else, Lyra would have argued, but not here.

Upon stepping into the central hall, the doors closed behind them. The air was invitingly warm, and it smelt wonderful like fresh lavender and pine. In front of them was a semi-circle of twelve thrones about a story off the ground. Each throne was occupied by an armored Valkyrie with Brenda and Selma in the center. To the left and right of the semi-circle was a gallery of seating for the rest of the Valkyrie. Their seats weren't as impressive, but at least they looked comfortable enough. In front of the semi-circle were several rows of benches divided down the middle with a podium at the end of the row.

Trent and Zillah sat in the front row with Kayla, Roxie and Nico behind them. It took about two or three minutes, but when they finally made it to the front of the hall, Lyra and Skylar sat next to their friends.

Brenda was the first to speak, "thank you all for joining us here in Gladsheim." Her eyes swept across the room, first to her Valkyrie, and then back to Lyra and her friends. "As the representative of Thor, favorite son of Alfodr, and as a Dair I have requested your presence to discuss the situation surrounding our visitors."

The Valkyrie in the galleries whispered amongst themselves. Selma stomped her spear on the ground, "quiet!"

The Valkyrie fell into line as a raven landed on the back of Brenda's throne.

Brenda held up her hand with her pointer finger pointed up, indicating a one, "There are those amongst us who feel we should escort our guests to the wall and cast them back into the world of mist and men. This would ultimately lead them to be open to another attack."

A second finger joined the first indicating a two, "Others feel that we should hold them here at Camp Asgard and train them as we once did with the demi-gods. However, we are still uncertain about the origins of their godly parents, and without that knowledge we cannot treat them in accordance to our bi-laws."

A third finger was raised, "Another option is to turn them over to the Greeks. Recently, olive branches from their realm have been extended by Chiron of Camp Half-Blood as they searched for a missing demi-god. This gesture of good faith might open a new era of cooperation between our two worlds. Lastly, there are a few who feel we should allow them to continue on their quest with our aid. This quest calls for seven individuals to participate, but only four are present a fifth girl is still missing. That means we will need two volunteers to break rank and accompany them."

The Valkyrie broke out into a new wave of chatter that once again had to be silenced by Selma. "As the representative of Tyr, son of Alfodr, and as a Diar, I must request that we hear the opinions of our visitors before casting my vote."

Zillah stood causing everyone's eyes to turn toward her. She moved over to the podium. Her brows came together as she thought about what to say. "I…" She cleared her throat, "I am Zillah O'Shea, bastard daughter of Suzanne O'Shea, foster child of Sophie Glew. I hum…" She cleared her throat again. "The prophesy was given to us by the Oracle of Delphi. The only logical choice currently before you is to allow us to continue on our quest. For whatever reason, there are powers at work here that we know are above us and should not be messed with." She whipped her hands on her jeans and stepped down.

Trent stood with a brave look on his face and made his way to the podium. "Hi, umm… I'm Trent Glew and ummm…" His completion turned a pale shade of green, "ditto to everything Zillah said!" He practically ran back to his seat.

Lyra was the next in line; she took in a deep breath and walked over to the podium. Sweat soaked her palms causing the electricity to build under her skin. Her eyes scanned the golden hall. They were meeting in a lightning rod. Just one discharge and everyone would be fried. Calm down, she told herself, they're not going to kill you. "I am Lyra Armstrong, daughter of Aslaug Armstrong, twin sister of Skylar Armstrong. I agree with Zillah and Trent." She turned on her heals and joined her friends on their bench.

Skylar got up next and slowly made his way to the podium. "I'm Skylar Armstrong, appointed quest leader. It would give us great honor to have one or two of you lovely ladies advise us on our quest." He flashed them his smoldering smile. Lyra inwardly groaned seeing it. Whenever they were in trouble with a teacher or if there was a girl in the class that was smarter than they were, he would break out the smolder in order to get what he wanted out of them. Normally it was just to copy homework, but right now she hoped they didn't see through it as being a tool of persuasion.

"Very well, it seems like our guests are in agreement with each other. It is now time to vote. Those who favor deportation." Brenda glanced toward the other Dair. Two of them raised their hands. "Those who favor training?" Three of the Dair raised their hands. "Those who favor handing them over to Camp Half Blood?" Only one raised her hand. "Lastly, the quest?" The rest of the Dair raised their hands.

"The quest carries the vote." Selma curled her lips, "Who amongst us is willing to join them?"

The Valkyrie glanced back and forth amongst themselves. After a minute, Jerry raised her hand.

Brenda's gaze fell upon her, "Jeraldine, Daughter of Eir, step forward."

Jerry left her place and walked toward the podium.

"What say Dair about her candidacy?"

A Valkyrie with blond Princess Leia buns spoke first, "she is very agile."

"Terrible with a spear," Selma nearly laughed.

"A healer," a Valkyrie with kind eyes and an extremely pretty face spoke up, "and a thinker."

"A bit young," another commented.

"No victories on the battle field," someone else added.

"Disobedient at times, but obedient when it matters most."

"Untapped potential, and is often overshadowed by others."

"She is good with the horses."

"Good stamina."

"Average."

"I haven't observed her much, but I can't make any arguments for or against her," the last one looked fairly indifferent.

Brenda looked at each of the Valkryie as they spoke, "those in favor?"

Seven of the eleven said, "Aye."

"The ayes have it," Brenda waved her hand toward Lyra and her friends, "please join them." She shifted her gaze back toward the galleries, "who else will join them on their quest?"

* * *

><p><strong>Here's your chance to add your imput! Who do you think should join Skylar, Lyra, Trent, Zillah, and Jerry on this quest? <strong>


	13. Leaving Camp Asgard

**Chapter Thirteen: Leaving Camp Asgard**

_**Lyra**_

Lyra held her breath as the seconds turned into minutes. Apparently, no one wanted to help them. She really couldn't blame them, they were strangers, and this was a quest that would take them away from their friends.

She glanced back at the Camp Half Blood kids. Kayla was chewing on her lip while she was focusing on Roxie. Roxie's hands were being held together by her older sister. She kept trying to wiggle them free as her growing frustration spread across her beet red face.

It was sweet that the little girl wanted to help them, but Lyra knew that having a six year old with them would be a disaster. Not that the girl wasn't helpful, it's just, ugh… she was six. It's one thing for a group of teenagers to be moving about, it was another thing if they had a little kid with them. Way too many adults would notice her, especially if they were out later than dark.

Nico sat a few feet away from the Apollo sisters. His brows were knitted together as if he were struggling to decide upon something. Lyra wondered what he was thinking. In fact she wondered what his place was in all of this. He had been like twenty feet away from them when they received the prophecy, so was he an automatic choice? And what about Meredith, was he worried about her? Maybe he sensed that she died and was struggling to figure out how to tell them?

"Well then!" Selma's snotty voice broke Lyra's concentration. "Since no one else wants to join them, I suppose the Diar will appoint someone."

One of the young women at the end of the semi-circle spoke first, "I nominate, you Princess Selma to join their ranks. As the representative of Tyr, you have the fighting skills and the experience to be an affective addition."

"I second the nomination," stated the extremely kind looking one.

A spark passed from Skylar's hand to Lyra's. She shifted her eyes to find that the expression on his face was unreadable, however if she could read his mind it would have said, "do we have a choice? Or really, that one? She hates us."

"All those in favor," Brenda raised her hand as she asked the question.

"AYE!" Rang off the golden walls.

"Opposed?"

Silence…

"The ayes have it, Princess Selma, you will go with our new friends on their quest." She turned back toward the Valkyrie and nodded, "this session of the Diar is adjourned."

Lyra and her friends waited until the Hall cleared. Even the Camp Half –Blood kids left. Which was fine, Lyra guessed, it wasn't like they could go anyway. However, Kayla gave Skylar a satchel with some nectar and ambrosia squares in it. She warned them not to eat too much, too fast otherwise they'd die. Nice to know, right!

Jerri shifted from one foot to another as they waited for Selma. The girl rubbed her nose as if she were trying to rub the freckles off her face. Lyra really wondered why she cared enough to come with them, but then again who knows. It's likely, she thought, that she has a crush on Skylar. Most girls did, and they normally did stupid things to get his attention.

Selma held her helmet under one arm, with her hand on her other hip as she talked to Brenda. From what Lyra could tell, the college age girl didn't look too happy to be tagging along. When she was done she practically stomped over toward their group to join them.

"So, what's the plan?" She tilted her head as she stared at Skylar.

"Ummm… plan…" His eyes darted over toward Lyra.

"You do have a plan, right?" Her condescending voice gave Lyra a sudden sense of dread.

"Ummm… do you know of any Dragon's layers?" Trent asked.

Selma rolled her eyes, "you're all totally clueless." She swept her honey blond braid off of her shoulder. "I suppose we could start by consulting Mimir."

"Who's that?" Zillah asked.

"Only one of the wisest gods of the Aesir. Back when Odin was still alive…" Jerri started to tell them, but was rudely cut off.

"This is no time for history lessons; they either know it or they don't. Anyway, I suggest we wait until dawn to leave." She turned toward Jerri, "Make sure you get the provisions together. I don't want to be stuck anywhere without food or clothes." And with that she swept out of the hall.

"Wow, this is going to be fun." Zillah rolled her eyes.

Jerri shrugged her shoulders, "She means well. The attitude is umm…, just a personality defect, that's all."

"That's putting it nicely," Zillah smirked as she slipped her arm around Skylar's waist. "Come on; let's get you back to your cot."

Lyra held her breath for a second waiting for Skylar to rebuff Zillah's attempt to help him, when none came, she went to his wounded side and rubbed his shoulder sending as much electricity in it as she could muster, "Come on Skylar, you're girlfriend's right."

The next morning Lyra woke to find her clothes were cleaned and a backpack was sitting on top of her footlocker. Her dagger was still pressed against her leg under the night gown Jerri produced for her to sleep in the night before.

Zillah plopped down on the cot next to hers. She was already dressed and ready to go, "The boys are already up, and Selma is pacing outside."

"Great…" She rubbed her eyes.

Zillah tossed her a bagel, "eat up, we've got a long flight."

Lyra sat up in her cot, she pulled on her clean pants, and continued to change into her clothes as Zillah talked, "what do you mean, we have a long flight?"

"Oh, you have to see them in order to believe it," Zillah grinned.

"Do you mean they have Pegasi?"

Zillah shook her head, "nope, though they are in the horse family."

Lyra took a bite out of her bagel, "come on just tell me already." She stood, dressed and ready to go.

"Do you remember what Odin's horse looked like?" They started to walk outside.

Lyra thought for a minute as she chewed, "Umm… it had eight legs?"

"Yep, and well, he has lots of decedents now." Zillah grinned as she pointed to a group of saddled eight legged horses. "The Valkyrie use them to travel the earth. We're going to use them to get to Minneapolis."

Lyra whistled, "Damn, their uh… interesting looking." She tilted her head, they were actually beautiful. It's just that it was strange to see horses with eight legs. She grew up watching Disney's Heracles so she was used to seeing a Pegasus, and her mom had a snow globe with a unicorn in it, so those images were normal in her mind. But eight legged horses, that was a bit much to take in.

Trent was standing in the center of their horses. He looked like he was trying to decide which one he wanted to ride, while Skylar and Jerri were loading up their saddle bags with provisions and weapons. And well, Zillah was right; Selma was pacing back and forth.

"Oh, before I forget again, what did Sophie say when you talked to her?"

Zillah frowned, "I uh… really don't want to talk about it right now. She was really upset, and she wanted to come here, but neither Trent nor I know where here is. Trent suggested she stay home just in case Meredith shows up there."

"Ouch, that bad… I wish my mom missed me…" Lyra shook her head; she wasn't going to say it. But she really felt like her own mother didn't care about her and that she just wanted her to… ugh! She didn't know what to think, so she pushed the thought aside and nodded to Brenda, who was standing several feet away from her friend.

"We're ready to go," She took the last bite out of her bagel.

"Excellent, as soon as Jerri is finished with the bags you may leave. Happy hunting." She placed her helmet on and walked off the path and behind the building.

"You do know how to ride a horse, right?" Selma looked her over as if she thought she was a disrespectful child.

"I guess; we've gone horseback riding a couple of times…" Lyra dusted her hands off of all the extra crumbs.

"Good."

"I haven't," Zillah frowned.

"Well, then you better hold on tight," Selma gave her a grin before walking over to a black mare with a flat English saddle.

"Just remember keep your hips and shoulders balanced over your feet, and both of your hands on the reins," Lyra gave her friend's shoulder a squeeze before they joined the others.

Skylar was looking much better. His eyes had lightened, and his facial expression was more relaxed. He helped Trent up onto his horse and then he helped Zillah up onto hers.

Lyra didn't bother asking for help, she didn't really need it. Neither did Jerri.

"We're heading to Gold Medal Park, the head of Mimir is currently resting at the top of the burial mound," said Jerri from on top of her chestnut mare.

"All right! Let's go talk to his head." Trent held the reins in his hands.

Selma nodded and took the lead; she motioned for Jerri to keep track of the rear.

At first the horses trotted across the field where the ghosts were practicing, but then with each step, they climbed into the air.

Lyra held on to her reigns, "please don't drop me." She rubbed the back of her horse's neck.

The horse shook his silver mane.

"Thanks umm… Blitz, can I call you that? You remind me of lightning." She shivered feeling the warm air of Camp Asgard leave them as they traveled into the overcast sky.

The black stallion neighed. Lyra took that as a yes.

"YA HOOOOOOOIE!" Trent held his hands above his head! "THIS IS AWESOME!" His horse neighed with pleasure.

Lyra smiled it was nice seeing Trent enjoy himself, she knew how close he was with his sister, and that he was going nuts with worry.

Lyra shifted her gaze from Trent to Zillah as she heard her scream. Her horse was wildly bucking and the saddle straps snapped.


	14. At the Edge of an Abyss

**Chapter Fourteen: At the Edge of an Abyss**

_**Meredith**_

The dreams started a few days before the first day of school. When she closed her eyes she found herself on a deserted island. Or at least she thought it was deserted. She really wasn't sure.

Okay, so in your mind picture the most beautiful pristine beach that you could ever imagine. Soft sand warming your feet, a warm breeze keeping you refreshed and cool, and oh the water... several miles of crystal clear water and in the distance it looked viridian blue. Palm trees provided shade several meters from the water. All different fruit bearing trees were in full blossom and there were tropical flowering plants that reflected all the different colors of the rainbow mixed in with the underbrush. The sound of a babbling river could be heard just inland. She could only imagine that it lead to a waterfall and a lagoon. So, with all that in mind, well, this beach was a million times more beautiful than that.

The first time she had the dream, she just stared in wonder at all of the pretty scenery. It was paradise, and not just any type of paradise, it was her paradise.

The dreams continued every so often, and when they she wasn't having them she generally didn't dream of anything at all. However this time was different. When Meredith awoke in her dream world, it wasn't the warm tropical paradise she loved; it was rather cold, with a deep sense of loneliness and abandonment looming in the air.

Meredith rubbed her arms as she tried to pull warmth into them. Normally, the cold didn't bother her, but then again, nothing about the dream world was normal.

"Hello?" She called out hoping that this time someone would answer. Well, only if that someone was nice, she shuttered as she walked into the water. "HELLO?" She called again.

The normal blue sky turned a nasty shade of gray. "WHO GOES THERE?" A voice seemed to thunder from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Meredith wasn't sure if she was just hearing it in her skull or if it was vibrating out of the very sand and surf.

"I would like to ask the same question! This is my dream, so you tell me first!" She dropped her hands and balled her fists.

In front of her, the grey sea swirled up forming a cloak of sorts. Pale decrepit fingers dropped from the sleeves as a weathered grumpy looking face formed in the hood. A long coral bread sprung from his upper lip and chin, while two black lumps of obsidian appeared to be his eyes.

"Well, well, well, what type of insolent cod do we have here? A sacrifice of sorts, perhaps?" The water cloak swirled around him as he moved forward toward her.

Meredith tried to move out of the surf, but found her feet had sunk into the sand and were now stuck. "What? I don't understand."

"I don't suppose you do." He waved his hand. Seaweed sprung up out of the water and wrapped itself around Meredith's wrists.

"Hey! Who do you think you are! Let go of me!" She struggled to free her feet and wrists, but the more she struggled the deeper she sank, and the tighter the seaweed cut into her wrists.

The old man tilted his head, "I know who I am, but who are you, my dear?" He brushed his freezing cold bony fingers against her arm as he twirled a lock of her chocolate colored hair around them. Then he brought the lock to his nose to take in the scent of her hair. "Certainly not a naiad. None of them are that stupid to swim into my territory." He dropped the lock, and then he brought his fingers to her chin to inspect the bone structure of her face.

Meredith heart hammered in her chest. She was trapped, and didn't know what to do. "Are you a monster?"

"If I where, would I tell you?" He ran a finger across her brow, "grey eyes, with a wide brow, and a strong mind, too. Not a very common thing, you know. I suppose that's why your dream self is much older than your true form." He ran his hand across her cheek. His fingers probed her throat and the space directly below her collar bone. "You breathe easily in water. I don't suppose you have gills? Hmmm… no, it's his blessing." He spat.

"Stop touching me!" Her voice cracked as a tear spilled down her cheek.

The old man's coral brow rose about an inch, "You're in no position, to tell me what to do, young lady." He dropped his hand anyway and stepped back. "As pretty as you are, you're not of my taste."

"I… I don't understand." Her voice trembled.

"I don't suppose you do." He looked disappointed as he repeated his earlier statement. "She'll have to do better than you if she wants my support."

"Who will have to do better?" She also wanted to also ask why she wasn't good enough, but the question remained stuck in her throat.

"Wake up, child, and leave me be." The old man's cloak swirled up on itself in a spray and then it disappeared beneath the surface of the sea.

With a blink of her eyes, Meredith was no longer on her beach, but somewhere else. It was strange, she felt almost weightless, but then again there was a swaying pulse of pressure all around her.

She opened her mouth to speak, but stop tasting salt. Meredith quickly closed her mouth and swallowed. Salt water spilled down her throat, and into her empty stomach.

Her vision was slightly blurry, not that there was anything to really see. Wherever she was, it was dark.

After allowing her senses adjust she tried to sit up, but found she was buckled into to a chair.

Her brows quickly knitted together as she tried to recall why she was in a car seat. Clearly she wasn't in a car, so why was she strapped into a car seat?

"Yo.. you.. your alive?" A meek little voice vibrated in Meredith's head.

"Huh?" Meredith looked up and around.

Two slightly iridescent arms reached around Meredith's waist and unbuckled the seat belt. The seat was pulled off and sent down into a dark abyss. She turned and lifted her eyes to find a pretty hot iridescent looking guy floating above her. "Who are you and where am I?"

The guy looked around, "it..it's not sa..safe here." He extended his hand to her, "co..come with me..e."

He looked so sincere and nice that she couldn't say no. She took his hand and pushed off the ground. His hand slid down her arm and hooked itself around her waist. Before she could protest they were jetting through the water much faster than she could ever imagine swimming.

When they finally emerged out of the water, Meredith found herself in a boat shed with covered small boats bobbing up and down. Pale sun light streamed in through closed wooden shutters with a strong wind knocking something back and forth on the side of the building.

The guy released her waist and swam toward a ladder. His viridian green eyes glanced back to make sure she was following him. "Co..mme onnn," he stuttered.

Why not? Meredith thought; a strange boy that glows under water wants me to follow him, who knows where? And wow apparently she can breathe underwater. She chewed her lip, maybe there is a phone nearby? This was likely a dream anyway, she thought, so she followed him.

He gave her a slight smile when she stood in front of him on the dock. "Yo..ur dry!"

Meredith looked down at her tattered sweat shirt and jeans. Large patches of her skin were poking through all over the place. Yeah, she was dry, but for some reason it seemed pretty natural.

She shifted her gaze back toward him, to get a better look at him. The tip of her head reached his chest, so yeah, that meant she had to look up. He was wearing typical clothes, dark blue jeans, with a gray graphic t-shirt and a slate color hoodie. His clothes looked dry for the most part, except for the hem of his jeans and his sleeves. "You look wet."

He frowned as he looked at his sleeves, "all…ways we..tt." He ran his fingers through his shaggy black hair.

"Sorry?" Meredith pressed her lips together, "where are we?"

A sudden strong gust of wind caused a distant bell to violently ring. The guy ran across the dock to one of the windows. He opened it about an inch to look out.

"What's going on? Please, talk to me." Her eyes scanned the rest of the building for a door. Maybe she could out run him or something? Though if he was able to run as fast as he could swim, then she doubted she would be able to get away. No, she needed to assess the situation and then come up with a plan.

He turned toward her and held his pointer finger to his lip. He closed the shutter and tipped toed back toward her.

Before he made it half way back toward her a large thump crashed on the roof.


	15. Remy's Mother

**Chapter Fifteen: Remy's Mother**

_**Meredith**_

The boy practically floated across the ancient wooden planks back toward her.

Meredith winced as he grabbed her arm to pull her over toward a stone wall several feet away. He pulled back a rack of wooden canoes hiding a solid stone door.

Only when the door had shut behind him did he turn on a dim light. "Sor..sorry ," he stammered, "too dang..gerous out there." His grip slightly loosened, but he was still trying to drag her down the hall.

Meredith braced her heals into the floor and shifted her weight into a squat in order to stop, "look, I'm not going to take another step unless you tell me, who you are, what you're talking about, and where are we!"

His brows knitted together as he turned toward her. He dropped her hand and sighed.

Meredith took a step back. She thought that he was going to try to grab her again or something, "I'll scream too!"

"My na..me is Remy, and you do not have to sc..cream. I… I'm a fr..riend, promise." He looked so sincere as he did his best not to stutter.

"Okay, Remy please tell me what's going on," Meredith did her best to sound calm.

He ran his hand through the dark mop of hair on the top of his head, "the sh..she demons… they are se… searching for you. Co..me, mom will know what to d.. do." He extended his hand to her once again.

"She demons?" Meredith continued to try to stay calm, but she could feel her heart rate jump. Mommy, I want my mommy, were the first thoughts to enter her mind. Stop it, she scolded herself, mom's not here. You'll just have to find a way to call her.

Remy nodded. "They… they have been look..ing for you for days." He quickly reached for her arm again, and smiled when she didn't pull away. "It will be o…k…"

Meredith nodded; he must have felt the change in her pulse. She continued down the tunnel as if she was sleepwalking.

When they reached the end of the hall there was a ladder heading up into what Meredith guessed was a trap door.

"I'll go fir..st." Remy reached up and grabbed a rung before putting his foot onto the bottom rung.

Meredith chewed on her lip as she watched him quickly ascend up a circular tunnel and through another trap door. Once he was out of sight she took inventory of herself. She patted down her clothes to see if she had anything on her that she could use to escape if need be.

She lifted her sweatshirt and smiled seeing the hilt from the dagger Nico gave her. At least that was something, but at the same time she wondered if Remy knew it was there.

Meredith didn't have any more time to think about it.

The trap door opened once again and Remy started down the ladder. "Co..me."

"Okay," she said before making her way up the ladder. By the time she poked her head through the trap door, she was questioning herself. Why didn't she just run back down that hall and back into the water?

Remy helped her through the trap door. "You o..kay?"

"Yeah," She rubbed her eyes as she tried to get used to change in light. Meredith went from a stone tunnel to what looked like a basement. Boxes were stacked against the walls and in random piles around the room.

The sound of creaking wood drew Meredith's attention toward the far side of the room. A Bohemian looking woman had descended down a flight of stairs.

Remy quickly took her arm and once again attempted to drag Meredith over toward the woman who had just reached the bottom of the stairs.

"So, you're the one they've been looking for, aye?" Icy blue eyes stared straight into Meredith's through salt and pepper bangs.

"I guess so. Could you tell me what's going on?" Meredith gave the woman her best smile.

The woman rolled her eyes and turned sending a damp looking braid over her shoulder. "Come on, I'll tell you want I know." She sent Remy a look that suggested that she was annoyed.

Meredith left the basement with the woman in front of her and Remy behind her. A wave of herbs and meats hit her nose as they entered a white washed kitchen. Both items were hanging from the ceiling beams drying out in order to be consumed at a later date.

The woman motioned for Meredith to sit at the table, "Remy keep a look out. I don't need a Valkyrie holding a blade to my neck."

"Ye..yes, mother." Remy left the room. Squeaking floorboards suggested that he was making his way up a flight of stairs.

"Sit, I'll get us some tea." Her gaze rolled over Meredith once more as if she was measuring her worth.

Meredith sat as directed. Her eyes scanned the walls looking for a phone, as she muttered her thanks.

The woman lit the burner with a match. "I'm not surprised Njord rejected you." Her lips twisted, "you smell like the southern seas and his taste is more for the northern ones." She took out two tea cups and placed them on the table.

"Njord?" Meredith blinked, "how did you know about that?" She wanted to also ask what this woman would know of a sea god's tastes but that seemed a bit rude to ask.

"Remy told me," she looked down her nose at Meredith as if she were the dumbest child she had ever encountered in her life. "My son is like most boys his age. They think only with their heads and I'm not talking about the one on top of his shoulders." She shrugged, "but that's another topic for another time."

Meredith flushed with embarrassment at the woman's comment. She hardly felt old enough to make anyone think of her in that way.

"Apparently the Valkarie have taken an interest in you. Do you have any notion as to why?" She placed two homemade tea bags into the cups.

"I have no idea. I don't even know what a Valkyrie is." Ugh… no phone in sight. No microwave, coffee pot, or anything electronic as far as she could tell. She doubted the woman had a cell phone…

The woman poured hot water into the cup, "They used to work for Odin. Gathering souls to fight for him during Ragnarock. But sadly they've changed sides."

"Changed sides?"

"Aye, I just said that. They work for Hel now. It started during the women's suffrage movement over a century ago. Their leaders decided that they rather support a living goddess rather than a dead god. Not that they are anti-men or anything like that." She paused as she sat and took a sip of her tea. "They just think that it's time for a new world order, that's all."

Meredith's brows came together as she thought about the bizarre comments. She took a sip of her tea as well, "And how do they plan on doing that?"

"By killing the resurrected gods." She gave her a cold smile. "If Odin, Thor, and all the others aren't reborn, then there is no need for another Ragnarock. The end of days will never happen."

"Oh, that's easy to accomplish." Meredith took another sip of the tea not wanting to appear overly hungry.

The woman placed her cup down. "Yes, it actually is. Especially if the child doesn't know they are of Asgard. Some of the minor gods children were accidently considered children of the Romans or Greek gods and were sent to their respectful camps." A cruel smile spread across her lips, "Let's just say that they are no longer a threat."

Meredith sipped some more tea, "so what does all of this have to do with me?" She placed her cup down having finished drinking all of the water in it.

The woman shrugged, "nothing as far as I can tell. You were a convenient sacrifice, but now that you were rejected the Valkyrie will have to find some other way to convince Njord to join Hel's team."

But then why were they still looking for her? "So, I can go home, right?" She rubbed her head as a prang of pain spread from her temple to her frontal lobe.

The woman tilted her head and sighed, "you may not have Asgard blood in you, but you do have Greek blood. And blood of any godling is hard to come by."

"I don't understand," Meredith tried to focus her thoughts but the walls started to spin on her and the light in the room caused her vision to blur.

"No I don't suppose you would," she gave Meredith a grin as she fell out of her chair.


	16. Hanging with the Sleipnir

**Chapter Sixteen: Hanging with the Sleipnir**

_**Skylar**_

Skylar wasn't sure if it was the altitude or the fact that he had ate another piece of ambrosia before the left, but his mood was slowly improving. Yeah, he had a knot the size of a grapefruit in his stomach from worrying about leading the quest, but beyond that his shoulder was feeling better and they were finally leaving camp Asgard.

After talking to Jerri that morning he had decided to let the girl take point on their south western trip to Minnesota. He knew what to look out for as far as landmarks were concerned, so he wasn't worried about her tricking them. But still, as a precaution, he rather ride his eight legged sleipnir horse in the back of the pack in order to keep an eye on everyone.

They were in the process of traveling west over the water when Zillah's horse started to go nuts. "Crap…" Skylar was on it. He used his thigh muscles to maneuver his horse toward his failing girlfriend.

Zillah's horse couldn't keep it together. It screamed in pain as it tried to shake off both rider and saddle.

"A little closer," Skylar reached over to try to grab her arm as she bounced up and down on the back of the eight legged horse.

_Easy for you to say… you don't have to watch out for four legs on this side!_

The strap that held the saddle to the horse snapped off sending Zillah up into the air.

"Got her!" Lyra came from above catching Zillah's left hand, while Skylar caught her right one.

Zillah stopped screaming and blinked as they held onto her, "I hate flying…," she whimpered.

_Pull her up, we'll be faster if she flies with us. _The silver haired horse neighed.

"Pull her up?" Skylar frowned realizing that the voice was inside his head and not coming from anyone's mouth.

"I guess that makes sense," called Lyra over the wind. "We need to catch up and we'll be lighter if Zillah rides with me!"

Skylar reluctantly let go of Zillah's hand after giving it a squeeze. Once she was holding on to Lyra from behind he looked back at her horse. The beast looked confused.

"Find your saddle and bring it to me," he ordered.

The mare puffed out her cheeks and then dove in the opposite direct to retrieve the saddle from the ocean.

He nodded to Lyra. They both used their reigns to signal to the horses to catch up with the rest of the group.

When he felt that Lyra and Zillah were far enough ahead of them, to be out of hearing range, he cleared his throat, "hello… umm… horse can you talk?"

A laugh broke out in his head as the horse nickered. _Of course I can bloody talk. I'm not a normal horse you know!_

Skylar cursed as they moved back over land.

_Now, that wasn't a very nice thing to say._

"Sorry?" He had no idea why he was apologizing.

_Apology accepted, mate! By the way, my name's Edge._

"Okay Edge… So I can understand you. Umm… can everyone else understand you too?" He had to narrow his eyes as the dots in front of him started to grow larger. Apparently Jerri realized they needed to catch up.

_Umm… don't know. I'd never given it any thought before. The Valkyrie are the silent type… they never really say anything other than directional orders._

Great, either that ambrosia was making him loony or eight legged horses can talk. Who knew?

A great amount of huffing buzzed in the back of Skylar's mind.

He turned to see Zillah's mare coming up fast from behind them. _Cou… couldn't reach it. So sorry… _huff _Master. _

Skylar's horse shook his head, _stupid mare,_ he whispered. _That one's missing a few horse shoes if you get my drift._

"Now who's not being nice." Skylar frowned, "What happened back there?" He directed the question to the mare as she pulled up next to him.

The mare shook her head, _something was sticking into me. Look, I'm bleeding._

Skylar motioned for his horse to let the mare come up in front of them. She was right, there was blood running down her sides. It wasn't much but it looked like the wounds were closing up all by themselves.

"Who put your saddle on? Was there anyone else that touched you after that?" He frowned at the thought. Did one of the Valkyrie sabotage this mare's saddle so that the rider would get killed? Or maybe it was just an accident?

She neighed, _don't know, Master, one minute I was eating some lovely apples in my stall the next I was standing outside with everyone else. I don't know what happened._

_You were kind of loopy… though that's sort of normal. _Edge snorted.

_Pish posh! No, I'm not!_

_Are too._

_Am not!_

_Are too!_

"Stop it, both of you!" Skylar growled. The others were close enough that they could see him talking. He waved his hand motioning for them to keep going.

_He started it, _the mare muttered.

"Don't!" Skylar sharply ordered his stallion, who neighed his displeasure in response. "I need to think…"

Skylar went over the last couple of days in his mind. This whole prophesy thing seemed so stupid it felt totally unreal. But that was just it, they were stuck in the middle of it and now they were being forced to see it through.

It was nearly dark by the time they flew over the Great Lakes. Skylar still didn't know who to trust or what was really going on. He racked his brain as he tried to remember the Norse myths his grandfather told him as a child. Nothing seemed to help him figure out what to do next. Nor did anything seem to help him find some answers. So, yeah, there had been a Ragnarok, the gods died, but what about the goddesses? Nothing was ever said about them. Or what happened to the gods that did survive?

There were too many questions and not enough answers.

_We're here! _The horse neighed as the others slowly descended past the Viking's Stadium toward Gold Medal Park.

Skylar braced himself as they landed. It was pretty over cast, with a good steady wind blowing leaves around. Anyone he saw moving about had their hands in their pockets and were moving as fast as possible to their desired destinations.

"I thought we lost you there!" Jerri was off of her horse. She held his reigns in her hands as she made her way over to Skylar.

"Nah, we just had a little accident, that's all." He dismounted as he motioned to make their way over to where Lyra and Zillah landed.

"An accident? By Odin, we should have stopped! Is everyone alright?" She must have put two and two together as she saw Zillah being helped off of Lyra's stallion.

"Shaken up, but steady." Skylar shrugged in a nonchalant manner.

_Bull shit! _Skylar's horse nickered. _You're a horrible liar. _

Skylar gave him a side look.

Jerri turned her attention to Zillah's horse, "awe, Wilhelmina, are you ok, girl?"

_What do you think? I have half a mind to poop and go home to my stall. _She stomped

"There… there…" Jerri patted her nose as she spoke softly to her. "I'll give you an extra apple when we get home. You're such a pretty pony…"

_I don't want an apple. I want to kick who ever put that nasty saddle on me! _She stomped.

"Such a pretty pony, yeah, you'll be okay, and I'll even find you some extra oats too," Jerri gave the horse a smile before turning toward Zillah. "What happened?"

Zillah hugged her arms across her chest, "the horse started to buckle, the saddle snapped, and I was airborne."

Jerri looked perplexed.

"Hey!" Selma walked her horse around the mound and waved to them. "What are you all waiting for, an invitation!"

Trent was half way up the mount. He stayed in his saddle, "that was awesome!"

"Come on, we'll figure this out later." Zillah shuttered and turned around. She made her way up the mound toward Trent. Wilhelmina followed her lead.

"Let's go people!" Selma called. Apparently she hadn't notice the missing saddle on the back of Zillah's horse.

"We're coming!" Jerri turned her horse and headed up hill.

"Hey," Skylar grabbed his sister's arm.

She raised a brow, "what?"

He waited another few seconds in order to give Jerri a head start. "Does your horse talk to you?" He asked as quietly as possible without moving his lips.

"Blitz?" She looked back at her horse, "can you talk?"

_If I choose to._

"Nope, just a regular eight legged horse." She shrugged, "why does your horse talk to you?" She said in a jokingly manner.

"You didn't just hear him say, 'If I choose to'?" Skylar's brows knitted together.

She shook her head, "no… you're not joking either…" Her hair turned a darker shade of gray.

"No… I can hear them talk. It's kind of freaking me out." He rubbed the back of his head. "Don't say anything to anyone. Got it?"

"Yeah… got it," she frowned. "What do you think it means?"

"I'm crazy."

"No, that sounds stupid. And you're not crazy." She twisted her lips.

"What?"

"I'm jealous; I want to hear what they're saying too." She poked his arm.

"Now, that's stupid." He gave her a slight grin and whispered, "they're ummm…"

_Ummm…. I can hear you… _Blitz neighed.

_So, can I mate. We're not that bad, really, it's just Minna, she's such a…_

_Snowflake? _Blitz neighed as if he were laughing.

"Oh sorry," Skylar shook his head as the horses continued to make fun of Zillah's horse.

Skylar's horse butted his back with his nose to get him moving once again.

Lyra laughed, "you'll have to give me the highlights of their conversation." She turned her eyes toward the top of the hill. True enough, the head of an extremely old man with his eyes closed lay motionless at the top of the mount. "Come on; let's go find out what that decapitated head has to say, okay?"


	17. Chilling with Mimir

**Chapter Seventeen: Chilling with Mimir**

_**Skylar**_

"I think he's asleep!" Trent frowned as he knelt down next to the head, "should I pick him up?"

"What!" Selma grabbed his arm, "are you crazy, you don't just pick up a god!"

"Hey! I was just kidding!" He pulled his arm free, "geeze, lighten up will you?"

The eyelids on the head fluttered open as the old man's head snorted and weezed. "Now….now I say there. What's with all that racket?"

Skylar winced; this guy looked like he had at least forty to fifty years on his grandparents. Which in reality he most likely had more like fourteen thousand years on them, but that was beside the point. Age spots and wrinkles flacked his face. A long white beard and mustache billowed around the base of his head. Extra hair stuck out of his nose, ears, and eye brows. Mucus covered his eyes, clearly giving him the look of advanced coatracks. He was in deed extremely old looking.

Selma fell to her knees. "Mimir, the wisest of the Aesir, we come seeking council for our quest."

"Council hmmm?" His brows wiggled as if he was looking at each of them in turn. "Valkyries and demigods working together, eh? Interesting…. Long time since this has occurred, it has been." He turned his eyes toward Skylar, "council I could give, but nothing in return do you have to give me?"

Trent's brows lifted. He swung his pack around and started to dig through it. "Here!" He pulled out a Giant's baseball cap and sunglasses.

Mimir laughed so hard his head rolled slightly before he erupted in a series of coughs. "Trinkets I need not. A Vikings cap would have been better, though, so would ray band sunglasses."

"You can see that?" Zillah exclaimed.

Mimir laughed again, "Child… oh sweet child. You amuse me so. All of you, so fresh and young, it reminds me of the time when…"

"Please, with all due respect, we need to continue on our quest," Selma sweetened her tone; "perhaps after we are done we can come back and listen to your stories."

Mimir turned his goo covered eyes toward Selma, "then speak the words the prophesy, and be done with it."

Selma casted her eyes back on Skylar and motioned for him to speak.

Skylar shook his head out of his stupor, "In Vin - land seven heroes will assemble; The screams of the sea will cause the earth to tremble; From Dragon's Lair only silver may be taken; Those who were once thought dead will soon awaken."

Mimir looked pleased, "good, good, it's about time that one came into play, isn't it?" He raised a brow at Selma and then he looked back at Skylar.

"What does it mean?" Asked Lyra, "we've already gathered in Vin-land. But the rest of it doesn't make sense." Electric sparks flickered in her sky blue eyes.

Mimir grinned, "the journey is always more important than the destination, my dear." He winked, "that was a freebe, yes… yes… you will have to earn the other three clues for the last three lines."

Skylar swallowed hard, "what would you have us do?"

"What first? What first? Ah, yes… yes! You will do nicely, yes you will, boy." He grinned, "you and you alone will seek out Idun, and convince her to give you a golden apple. Bring it to me so that I may eat it!" He shifted his gaze toward Selma, "you and one of the girls will bring me to the Well of Wisdom." He grinned, "the rest of you will travel to the Well of Fate. Assist the Norns in covering the branches of the mighty Yggdrasil. They will give you with a vile of water from the same well. Bring it to my new resting place."

Skylar exchanged looks with his sister, "hmmm… we don't know where to find any of that!"

Selma groaned, "I thought your sister was the one with the head injury." She gave Jerri an annoyed look before turning her fierce gaze on Skylar, "your Sleipnir will take you there. As for the rest of us, I know where the Well of Wisdom is rumored to be." She motioned toward Zillah. "I'll take, her with me." Obviously she had forgotten her name. "Jerri will take your sister and the boy to the Yggdrasil. It's huge so it will be easy to spot from a distance."

Skylar didn't like her ordering them around, but she was apparently trust worthy enough that a god wanted her to carry him to a new location. He nodded slowly, before turning his gaze on his friends, "any objections?"

"Yeah, why do I have to go with her?" Zillah looked a bit peeved.

Selma rolled her eyes, "don't you know anything?"

"Educate me!" Zillah gave her a death stare.

"Thought so," Selma's smile looked a bit wicked. "The Yggdrasil is the tree of life. Sparky, should be able to ascend its branches easily enough, and Water Boy should be able to manipulate the well enough to produce enough mud to give its branches a good coating. Besides that Jerri can add some healing enchantments to help slow the decay of the tree's roots. But you," she snorted, "you reek of death. If you went to the Tree of Life you'd bring about Ragnarok."

Zillah shook her head, "no I wouldn't!"

Mimir groaned, "too harsh, Princess. I expect better from you."

A split second of anger spread across Selma's face. Skylar bet that if she could she would stuff a rag into Mimir's mouth.

"Look, we're all tired from the journey here. Why don't we get something to eat rest up and head out in the morning," Skylar suggested.

"He's right," Jerri chimed in.

"Fine, let's camp out. The mist will keep the mortals from noticing us." Selma waved her hands as if she were spreading the stuff around.

They made camp at the bottom of the burial mount. Jerri and Trent scouted out a place to buy take-out and came back with burgers and fries for everyone.

That night Skylar fell into a restless sleep. His mind floated away from his body and ascended through a well of time. He felt like he was being pulled in thousands of directions as his senses went wild. Every type of color flashed across his eyes, and he felt thousands of different textures and emotions all at once. It was kind of like a large soup of everything and anything mixing and turning until primordial figures started to take shape.

It was just too much to process. The figures became clearer taking on the shapes of men and women. Some even had animal heads on top of human shoulders. They were all dressed differently. Some were practically naked wearing gauzy materials that cover little to nothing; others wore togas, loin cloths, animal skins, and various types of armor. Their skin ranged from the normal shades to blue, bronze, silver and gold. Some of them he thought he recognized based upon what they were wearing. Several of them shifted forms between looking like they were wearing Greek armor to wearing Roman armor. Others shifted different clothing as well but as they changed so did their genders.

He couldn't understand what they were saying, nor did he understand what they were doing. The holographic image of what looked like the world appeared out of a central type of computer counsel. At least Skylar thought it was our world. Large white patches were coving the northern and southern poles. Extra land appeared where Skylar thought the Indian Ocean belonged. The Caribbean was also a block of land. The Mediterranean and the Black Sea were only small lakes and the British Isles were connected to Europe.

A man with a long white skirt and high oval head piece pointed toward where Skylar thought Egypt should be located. He spoke in a langue that Skylar didn't understand. The group erupted into wave after wave of shouts and screams. The man in white pulled up the image to make it look larger. He pealed back the first layer of the planet to revile layer after layer of a dark river like underworld. At the bottom a menacing snake slithered as it fought a cat woman.

The rest of the figures went silent. A genderless being with white feature less skin, black pools as eyes, and elongated head made several motions with its long hands. The group voted causing the olive skinned being to smile. The alien looking dude placed its hand on the brow of the olive skinned man. His eyes went blank and then he disappeared. The alien repeated this processes multiple times on other figures including a woman with butterfly rainbow wings and a man with a falcon head.

This process repeated itself as other areas of the world enlarged. Places like India, China, Japan, the South Pacific, and many many other smaller locations seemed to receive the beings as well. The last group demonstrated a range of beings that included giant, dwarfs, and glowing elves. Some more human looking ones wore armor while others were practically naked.

The land of northern Europe and Western Asia rose from the map. It divided into nine layered pieces. The figures started to shout in anger. The ones wearing armor pushed the naked ones out of the way. The naked ones pushed back.

The alien dude shifted forms. Large branches sprung from its hands as its feet floated toward the globe. Each of the figures was pulled into the image by its branches until all were absorbed and nothingness remained.


	18. The Hag and the Tree

_**Over 1,600 views! Who will be the first to review?**_

**Chapter Eighteen: The Hag and the Tree**

_**Trent**_

Trent was always aware that his dreams were special. They weren't like any of his friends in school, nor were they like his mom's dreams. He wasn't sure about Meredith, since she normally kept her dreams private, but he knew that they were also different.

Sometimes he dreamt about things that would take place the next day. Other times he saw something that was happening while he was dreaming, but it was in a totally different place.

Before he went to sleep in his battery powered heated sleeping bag he attempted to control his dream. He thought about his sister. He wondered where she was and what she was doing. He felt that she was alive, but just out of reach.

It didn't work. Instead he found himself in a land of fog and mist. An ugly Viking Hall covered with lots of bones, rotting things, and just plain ugliness loamed above a river bank. A hippy looking middle age woman rowed up to a decrepit dock. She lifted her brown flowing skirt above her knees as she climbed out of the boat.

A sickly looking female ghost with hollowed out eyes and drooping skin met her on the shore. It bowed as if greeting someone of high status.

"Ran, this is unexpected," a whispery voice floated from the ghost.

"You honor me, Ganglot. I wish to speak to your mistress." A thin pale smile spread across her weatherworn face.

"That is rather unorthodox. My mistress rarely speaks to the Aesir. Especially the living ones," She said.

Ran tilted her head to the side, "have I not sent her souls to feast on? Have I not sunk ships carrying warriors for her to add to her armies?" Her eyes narrowed, "it would be a high insult to be refused an audience, especially when I risked the attention of my husband by traveling here."

The ghost disappeared for several seconds then reappeared. "She will see you." The ghost slowly floated back toward the castle.

Ran followed the ghost into the hall. Ghostly sailors stood on guard in front of the main doors and every several feet after that. They wore the different uniforms from all over the world. Some were wearing armor that reminded Trent of the Spanish Conquistadors from his history text book, others wore American sailor suits, but many he could not identify.

The entryway opened to a large room like the one he slept in only a day ago. At the far end was a raised platform. A hag of a woman, with only part of her head actually retaining hair, stared at Ran.

Ran bowed in respect, "Queen Hel, you honor me by granting me an audience."

The hag snorted, "what do you want Ran, can't you see I'm busy? This world has seven billion people you know, there are countless amounts of people dying each minute."

"I'm aware of that." She smiled, "it's about your offering to Njord."

That got the hag's attention, "go on."

"Apparently it was rejected."

"And you know this how?" Her voice rasped.

"My idiot mistake found it and brought it home," Her lips twisted.

The hag stared at Ran for a moment, "a pity. I would say to kill it, but apparently it would go straight to my Greek counter part's realm. If that happens, then my counterpart's master might learn of my plans." She shook her head, "if you like, you may hold on to it, do what you like to it, but just don't kill it yet."

Ran held a wicked smile on her face, "are you sure you don't want me to bring it here?"

"Bah! I don't think it would be able to manifest itself here."

"Very well, I shall hold on to it for now. Just be sure that your minions stay away from my sanctuary," she raised a brow.

"You know more than I would like…"

Ran shrugged, "being under the thumb of men for so long warrants the desire for change. Besides, several days ago I sensed several strong presences sailing above my realm. I fear the idiots have resurrected. I rather they found their way back to Niflheim as soon as possible."

The hag let out a disgusted sigh, "it is as I feared. Normally they are disposed of as children. If the ones you speak of have attracted your attention, then they are growing into their powers. It won't be long before they completely awaken."

Trent felt his mind being pulled back into his body.

"Hey!" Jerri's freckled face loamed above him.

"What?" He croaked.

"It's an hour past dawn. We need to get going," she frowned, "you smell funny."

Trent sighed, "What else is new?"

Jerri shook her head, "you and your friends are the strangest people I've ever met. Your friend, Skylar, was steaming as he slept and the rest of you were very hard to wake."

Trent sat up and rubbed his eyes. He expected to see everyone breaking camp but found that he was the only one still in a sleeping bag. The only other person that was there was Lyra, and she was sitting cross legged eating take-out.

"Morning sleeping beauty!" She grinned with a full mouth. "We're the last ones to leave."

"Great…" He stood and rolled his sleeping bag. Within fifteen minutes he was ready to go. His dream bothered him, but he wasn't sure what to make of it. It was obvious that the hag was a death goddess, but what about that Ran woman? And what was all that talk about an offering?

His thoughts were broken by the strong nudge of his sleipnir.

"Come on," Lyra mounted her barebacked horse.

"What happened to your saddle?" Trent frowned.

"Long story," she spoke in a low voice.

"Okay, are you going to tell me it?" He pulled himself up onto his saddle.

"Not now." She motioned toward Jerri. The girl was already up in the air.

Trent frowned, "ok, do you know where we are going?"

"Not a clue. Great huh?" She held onto the horse's hair. "Follow Jerri, Blitz." She turned toward Trent. "Though I think we need to go west."

Sure, why not? "Okay, why do you say that?" Trent squeezed his thighs. Within several moments they were all up in the air, galloping across the sky.

"A feeling." She shrugged.

It wasn't long before they saw the Rocky Mountains. Now, Trent has never been farther west then New Jersey up until the last couple of days. The sight of the Rockies nearly knocked his socks off. They were huge and never ending. The vast plains held tiny communities, farm land, and rolling open spaces, but then wham! Rocky Mountains!

It felt like it took hours to actually get near them, but as far as he could tell the sun was pretty much at the same spot in the sky.

Jerri guided her horse slightly north.

Trent shivered as they flew higher into the sky. They had finally reached the Rocky Mountains and needed to climb in elevation.

About a half hour passed before Trent noticed a strange large tree in the distance.

"Do you see that?" Jerri screamed across the wind.

"Yeah! Is that it?" Trent squinted his eyes.

"Yes, it is Yggdrasil." Jerry urged her horse to go faster.

"Do you know where we are?" He needed to know in case he got the chance to call his mom.

"British Columbia! We're going to fly over the Inland Rainforest!" She grinned.

"Rainforest? Isn't that in Brazil?" Trent was kind of confused. His idea of a rainforest came with macaws, sloths, large snakes and lots of nasty bugs.

"No, that's the Amazon Rainforest. This is totally different, this is a Temperate Rainforest. The climate and trees are also totally different. We're going to head toward the northern section in the Mitchell Valley Wetlands." Her words were barely herd over the wind.

"Okay!" He blinked as they were getting closer. Yggdrasil didn't look so good. The leaves were small, brown with yellow rings. The bark appeared to be pealing. Light bounced off of a golden rooster perched on one of the top branches. Several other things appeared to be running through the branches, but what they were, Trent couldn't figure it out.

The tree's base span hundreds of miles, leaving Trent wondering why no one ever noticed it. But then the comment about the mist Selma went on and on about the other day gave him a pretty good answer. He also came to the conclusion that a tree of that size had to be in a rainforest. How else would it get enough water to drink?

Jerri guided them toward one side of the tree. Three wisps of movement moved amongst the branches. They poured something on them and then flew back down to a large lake at its base.

"The Norns!" Jerri smiled back at him.  
>Trent hoped that meant that they were nice. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off three ancient Norse goddesses.<p>

They landed the sleipnir about a hundred feet from the base of the Well of Fate. The sky darkened and mist and fog poured off the water. Within seconds Trent lost sight of Lyra and Jerri. It was so opaque that he couldn't even see the reins in his hands.


	19. The Well of Fate

**Chapter Nineteen: The Well of Fate**

_**Trent**_

"_Double double, toil and trouble… _

_rot rot, muck and guck… _

_time to tip fate's old hand. _

_Show us your cares and perhaps give us a hand…"_

Trent shuttered as he felt a cold wind slap the back of his neck.

"The wise Aesir, Mimir, sent us to aid you in saving Yggdrasill," Jerri's voice called out pretty loudly somewhere to Trent's right.

"Save you my try, my dear, but fate's hand is final as all things come to an end and then are reborn again," an ancient voice cracked as the fog started to lift.

"Mimir told us to help you in exchange for a vile from the Well of Fate," Lyra spoke from somewhere to Trent's left. He squinted his eyes as he tried really hard to see her, but the fog was still too thick. He thought he saw sparks, but wasn't sure if that was her.

"Help us, you will, but the vile is not free. Allusive Ratatoskr dashes here and there. Catch him, if you can and the vile is yours." A child spoke from somewhere in front of him.

"Ratatosokr?" Trent frowned. They were already doing them a favor and now they wanted another.

"Ratatosokr, is a squirrel that carries messages between Vedrfolnir, the wyrm that eats the roots of the World Tree and the hawk that sits in-between the eyes of an eagle at the top of the Tree," Jerri said.

Trent frowned, that tree was huge. It was so huge it he bet that its branches extended out across most of Canada. "Ok, give the tree a bath and catch the squirrel..."

"Wonderful… let's get this over with... I'll go after the squirrel." Trent saw Lyra moving, "Come on Blitz!"

The fog continued to lift leaving three silhouettes hovering in front of him. At first Trent thought that they were facing him, but they weren't. They were watching Lyra ascend into the sky.

"…a female." Trent barely heard the central Norn say to the others. Their voices were muttered together as they began to speak in a language he did not understand. When they were done conversing they turned back to him.

They stood in age order. There was a girl who looked about Roxie's age but with curly black hair and piercing gray eyes staring at him, a woman about his mom's age but with straight auburn colored hair and black eyes, and lastly an old woman with a long white braid draped over her shoulder with blue eyes.

"Come, Trent, into the Well of Fate you go. But for only a moment can you stay without losing your way," the girl held out her hand.

Trent swallowed as he dismounted. This kept getting weirder and weirder. Weren't wells supposed to be like deep holes in the ground that you throw a bucket into to get water?

As he took the girl's hand his life flashed in front of his eyes. He saw his mother at a park with his sister as a lonely toddler that the other kids were ignoring. Then he saw his mom looking at herself in the mirror with an obviously pregnant belly. The next instant he was born, then there was a quick succession of key events in his early life, from his first giggle, to discovering his feet, getting a tooth, all the way up to where he was standing today.

"What the!" He pulled his hand from hers, "what was that?"

"Your childhood, now come silly boy, into the water you go." She gave him a light shove into the lake.

"And do what?" He looked around. The World Tree stood like the combination of the Empire State Building, Sear's Tower, and a whole bunch of other skyscrapers he couldn't identify clustered into one.

Jerri's voice began to float across the water as he continued to walk. He couldn't understand what she was saying. Why was he walking into the water again? Especially in his sneakers. Was the water warm or cold? Why was he walking into the water again? Shouldn't he be wearing a bathing suit? Great and now his t-shirt was getting all wet or was it? Where was he? What's going on? Wow, that's a huge tree. Oh look squirrel! There was a girl on a horse flying after it! There are deer there too! Wow, they can even fly…

Fully submerged Trent continued to be well, confused. He wasn't drowning, so he continued to walk. The ground was a bit muddy, and there were plants trying to cling to his ankles but they didn't bother him too much. There were fish too, turtles as well, and frogs. He just continued to walk. Down… into the water until he could barely see light streaming through the top. It was like he was just walking across a football field. The water should have felt crushing. He should have drowned, but he didn't.

Trent lost track of everything. He couldn't remember anything; he couldn't figure out what he was doing, he was just moving and not caring.

His eyes began to blur as his mind slipped out of this world.

Images popped into his head, like places that he's never been, like this camp with a bunch of kids in orange t-shirts. He saw himself on a lake canoeing with Meredith. In another instant he was pulling a limp Roxy out of the ocean and swimming as fast as he could to get her back to the beach. Another instant he saw an arena with kids with the same orange t-shirts and others wearing purple ones.

Time seemed to progress as he noticed his sister and his friends getting older. Other people appeared that he didn't know who they were but they obviously meant a lot to him.

It happened so fast that eventually he got to the point where his life faded out of existence and he found himself standing in the middle of a muddy whorl pool. In the center of it he could see the trunk of that huge tree getting soaked by the water that was funneling up all around him.

It was just so cool. He imagined that the entire tree was getting a mud bath and that he could finally get on to finding out what that stupid prophecy with the dragon and silver and stuff meant. And most importantly finding out what happened to his sister.

Shit! Meredith! The image of her being tied up to a tree. There were two glowing eyes staring at her in the darkness. He could almost make out the sound of a wolf's growl.

The water funnel fell apart as fear and panic washed over him. The water slammed back on top of him completely knocking him out.


	20. Frigg? Odin? And Thor? Say what?

**Chapter Twenty: Frigg? Odin? And Thor? Say what?**

_**Zillah**_

Zillah was not happy. No, she was fairly annoyed. Not only did she have to get up before dawn, she had to get stuck with the stuck –up queen herself. And now she was flying with a decapitated head in her lap.

"You know…"

Zillah nearly dropped Mimir. She was so lost in her thoughts she forgot that he could talk.

"Now, that wouldn't have been very pleasant…" His eyes looked down and then back up at her. "You really need to be more careful, Freyja, I don't think all of Odin's ointments could have repaired the damage a drop from this height would have caused."

"Wait… what did you call me?" Zillah took her eyes off of Selma and looked down at Mimir.

"Oh, my apologies, Frigg." If he could, he looked like he wanted to shrug. "You know, you have practically the same appearance when you move between the Aesir and Vinar worlds."

"What are you talking about? Freyja? Frigg? My name is Zillah. Z-I-L-L-A-H," She frowned.

Mimir raised a brow and then he squinted, "No, my queen, you are just reborn, that's all, though apparently you are still asleep."

"Ok… you're starting to freak me out." Zillah glanced down as she wondered how much longer was she going to have to put up with this.

"I don't mean to, my queen, it's just that I don't trust that one." He glanced toward Selma. "The Valkyrie should have recognized you, Odin, and Thor as soon as they brought you to Camp Asgard. There are rituals, you know, to speed up the blending process."

Zillah's brows knitted together. "No, I don't know… what blending process?"

Mimir raised one brow and then the other as he seemed to be deciding what to say, "what was that?"

"Oh! Don't pretend you didn't hear me. You mentioned a blending process, now spill it, Mimir."

"Perhaps I've said too much…"

"No, you haven't said enough!" Zillah spat back.

He sighed, "the blending process enables you to retrieve your memories from your previous lives. Once that occurs, you will regain the sum of your previous lives powers."

Memories from previous lives? Power from them too? "Eh… I have enough of bad memories from this life to serve me for the rest of my life. I don't think I would like to remember dying."

"It's called compartmentalizing. You store them away and when you need them you look them up as if you were using one of those computer devises that your generation is so fond of. Really, computers are as old as the Delaware Water Gap. Forgotten technology, but never the less, what was once old is now new again, I suppose." He winked, "Good gracious I wouldn't honestly expect you to want to remember being male or how smelly and disgusting humans can be." He chuckled.

"Male?" Her voice cracked an octave.

"At least two times that I can recall. Short though. For some reason, each time you have been reborn in the last millennium it has only been briefly. Last time, I was sure you would make it to either the Roman Camp or Camp Half-Blood for proper training, since Camp Asgard was closed, but those Egyptian Magicians mistook you for being an Osiris godling. Long story, rather tragic, you were running messages back and forth between hospitals in New York City during the Spanish Influenza when the chaps from Brooklyn House nabbed you…"

"I don't want to know." She felt like she was going to be sick as the image of a smoky early twentieth century NYC skyline popped into her mind.

_She knew she had to be about eight years old, and yes, sadly in her last life she was a boy. His red hair was covered by a cap and his socks were practically rags from lack of funds to buy new ones. He had a sturdy coat though, one that was made of wool and taken off another lad during a game of street ball. _

_He had taken a short cut when those blokes started to chase her. They claimed that she must have stolen one of their friend's messenger bag, but the hospital gave it to her to carry messages! _

_He screamed that at them, but they refused to listen. Now, he was running for his life across the Brooklyn Bridge. Several fellows wearing tweed caps with boomerang like sticks were still chasing her. Well… not her grr!…him…_ _"I didn't do anything! Leave me alone!" His darn laces came undone sending him to fall onto his knees. _

"_Lookie here Doyle, a mite sized godling!"_

_Zillah felt herself being pulled up by the collar, "let me go!"_

"_You know what we do with godlings, mate?" A man with disgusting looking teeth with a gnarly mustache looked him in the eye._

_Zillah was so scared she just shook her head._

"_We send them to the Duat."_

_Zillah's eyes widened as she felt herself being flung off the bridge._

"WHAT is your problem!?" Selma stopped her sleipnir to look back at her.

Zillah took several deep breaths, "huh?"

"You were screaming," Mimir commented with a smug look on his face.

"Oh… I fell asleep and dreamt I was falling." She shrugged, "Sorry."

Selma rolled, "you have to be the slowest Val… Ah! Freak to ever ride a Selpinir! I've had to stop at least five times to wait for you. In fact I saw Jerri and your friends past us a half hour ago! Now, get your butt moving!" She whipped her eyes off of her and resumed her course toward the Canadian Rockies.

"That!" Zillah grinded her teeth as she ignored Selma and casted her eyes back on Mimir, "that was not nice!"

"Just making sure, my queen, besides I felt that it was wise to give you a taste of your past," he sounded a bit sad.

Zillah felt a headache coming on as she pushed the feeling of dying from her mind, "You said that you didn't trust Selma and that the Valkyrie should have noticed me, Odin and Thor. So, who is Odin and who is Thor?"

"You should know, without asking."

That headache began to throb. "Skylar's Odin and Lyra's Thor. But wasn't Thor, Odin's son? And Thor's a guy!"

"It helps to not think too hard about it, my queen, remember I said that you've been male in past lives. Why couldn't Thor be female in this life? Why can't they be twins in this life? Odin was a sky god and Thor was a lightning god. In order for those two to be reborn they needed to have a godly parent of their nature in order to create them. Same goes for you."

Ugh… "so we're both Norse and what Greek, Roman, Egyptian or something else?"

"Correct. In the past, you were just reborn by either an Aesir or a Vinar god, but since there are so few left, and most don't procreate anymore with mortals, you had to find another way to be reborn."

"This is just too much…" Zillah twisted her lips as the branches of the World Tree started to appear on the horizon. "Wait a second; I thought that we weren't going to the Yggdrasill!"

"The Well of Wisdom is near the base of the World Tree. Needless to say, your presence will not cause any additional damage. Odin used to visit me quite often and he never caused any additional damage. Regardless, the Valkarie also serve as maidens of death and they do not cause the tree to rot."

"Okay, well… I just wanted to double check…" She added quietly "So, what does cause the World Tree to rot?"

"The state of civilization, my queen. Plus, a couple of dragons and wyrms eating the roots, but for the most part it is the state of world affairs. When you mix political turmoil with climate change and moral neglect, the world becomes sick. It is truly a sad state… it hasn't been this bad since the end of the last ice age. And well, you don't know too much about the civilizations of that era of history do you?"

"Uh… no… sorry, I haven't been in school a whole lot in the last couple of years." She frowned wondering what else she didn't know that might be of some use to her at some point in her life.

"The mortals choose not to remember, my queen, because they destroyed themselves. Nuclear weapons, massive floods from melting glaciers, it was truly a terrifying time to witness. Though I suppose you'll remember soon enough, the mortals called it the Aesir-Vinar Wars. By the way that's when I lost my head, and when you went from being Frigg to Freyja." Again, if he could shrug, Zillah bet that's what he wanted to do.

"Ugh… again, I don't want to remember. I just want to be Zillah O'Shea, that's it. I can stand being a half blood, but anything more than that, no thank you."

"You are not ready, and that is a very wise attitude to take." Mimir smiled as thunder and lightning cracked in the distance in the direction of the World Tree.

Zillah turned her eyes, "What the…?" She squinted, "I think that's Lyra!" The figure of her friend on her horse chasing something through the branches caught her attention.

Selma changed directions and charged toward Lyra. A spear appeared in her hand as her armor manifested.

"After her, she's going to kill Thor!" Mimir gasped.


	21. Of Wells and Snakes

**Chapter Twenty – One: Of Wells and Snakes**

_**Zillah**_

As Zillah charged after Selma she felt a rush of adrenaline pouring into her veins. There had to be a good explanation for Lyra's actions, and Selma really did need to mind her own business. However, she doubted Selma would pause to think things through.

Mimir shouted several instructions to her as she pushed her Sepliner forward. It was one of those moments that she regretted not having a cell phone to text her friend. _"Watch out crazy B#$*&on your 6."_

That wasn't the case, and in fact she was likely to slow down if she had a cell to text her.

Regardless Zillah pressed her horse to fly faster.

"Channel Freya, child. Remember being her!" Mimir commanded.

"What? I don't know how to do that!" Zillah sat forward as they were gaining some ground on Selma.

"Freya was not only just any queen; she was the queen of the Valkyrie! You have the power to stop her before she reaches Thor," stated Mimir.

"Lyra… L-Y-R-A, her name is Lyra, not Thor. Besides is it wise to do that? I mean, won't that show Selma that I know what I am?" She shouted over the wind.

Mimir smiled, "good thinking, my queen. What are Zillah's powers? Perhaps focusing on them will help you save your friend."

Zillah's brows came together, what were her powers? She can kill all living plants just by touching them… well except lilies and other funerary flora. Hell hounds can't fly so channeling them wasn't going to work. "I don't know… death seems to be the only thing I'm good at. I can't use that to make her stop!"

"Got anything else? Perhaps a flair gun or a pistol to draw your friend's attention?" Mimir actually sounded worried.

"Ugh… this is Lyra's saddle; I don't know what she has in her saddle bags."

"What happened to your saddle?"

"Something was wrong with it… Minna threw both of us off." Zillah frowned; Lyra no longer looked like the size of an ant, now she was the size of a golf ball. There was only one thing she had on her person that she knew she could use, but the bad thing was that she wasn't really sure what she could do with it. Zillah reached behind her head to unfasten her hair clip. Her silver sword took shape.

"Very nice, I haven't seen that sword in a long time!" Mimir exclaimed.

The sun must have reflected off her blade because Lyra looked over her shoulder. She turned her horse and started to fly toward Selma.

Selma lowered her spear and slowed down enough that Minna almost ran right into her horse.

"What do you think you're doing!" Zillah shouted, "That's my friend, and you were charging at her like you were ready to stab her in the back!"

Selma's eyes were hidden by her helmet, so Zillah had no idea if they were crazed or calculated.

"That fool of a friend of yours almost burnt down the World Tree!" She hissed.

"No I didn't!" Lyra's hair was jet back. Her eyes were actually sparking with tiny lightning strikes. "I was trying to catch that damn squirrel for the Norns, and I had almost convinced him to come with me peacefully when I saw you rushing at me."

"Peacefully?! Ha! I doubt that, you're reckless!" Selma sneered.

"I was giving him options." Lyra growled. "I told him to come with me or I'd A – I'd singe his tall, hello, that's what the crack of lightning was for, B – I could grab him with my hands, but I can't promise that none of his bones won't break, or C – he could meet me at the base of the tree and gently ride over to the Norns. But now, he's oh! I don't know where he is; I have to find him all over again. Thanks a lot." Blitz neighed. "You know what, I'm going to get back to my task, and you two get back to yours! Come on Blitz." She turned her horse to face the World Tree again.

Mimir let out a chuckle, "Now, now Princess Selma, no harm done, right? I can't blame you for rushing into battle without thinking. That's what you get for representing Tyr. Come on, Zillah, I miss my well."

Selma's spear dissolved as did most of her armor. "Very well." She looked like she was still angry, but she had some control over it. She started to descend toward the Well of Wisdom, but she hesitated and called over shoulder, "Glad you finally learned how to push your Sleipnir, Freak."

Zillah reclipped her sword and sighed looking down at Mimir's head in her lap, "That's what you get for representing Tyr?"

Mimir looked like he wanted to shrug, "I had to say something encouraging. There was just too much tension in the air not to."

Zillah shook her head, "Is Tyr sort of like Ares?"

"A bit, he's more like Mars, and besides Tyr lost his right hand to the wolf, Fenrir. If she were more like Ares then she would have likely attacked Lyra as she approached."

Zillah started her decent, "that's good I guess." She shrugged.

The Well of Wisdom was pretty much a lake. It looked just like any other lake, Zillah, had seen in her life. The main differences were the plants that surrounded it. Since they were in what Mimir called a temperate rainforest, it was fairly cold and damp.

"Okay, where too? The muddy ground over there or the muddy ground over there." She pointed out several locations as she held up his head.

"Ah, the one over there by the small tree. I think there is a nook in there that I can get some shelter from the rain," he suggested.

Zillah flew down toward the section of the lake Mimir asked to be taken. Selma quickly followed her once she realized Zillah was no longer behind her.

Within a few minutes Zillah was quickly able to dismount Minna. Her landing wasn't as graceful as she would have liked, but thankfully Selma wasn't in view to make fun of her.

"There we go!" Mimir smiled as Zillah placed him in the nook of the tree. "Home sweet home!" He wobbled back and forth to get a good sense of his surroundings.

Zillah looked back over her shoulder to find Selma walking her Sleipnir.

"Go on, walk your mount. But don't let it drink from the well. A Sleipnir that is too wise for its own good is not a very happy creature."

"Understood." Zillah looked back at the lake, "may I drink from it?"

Mimir frowned and narrowed his eyes, "have you ever heard of the Eye of Odin, my dear?"

Zillah shook her head, "nope."

"Hmm… Odin once asked if he may drink from the well. His eye was the price he had to pay in order to taste its waters."

"Ah… never mind. I'm really not thirsty." She shuttered, "What about you? Do you want me to get you some water from the well?"

"Now, that would be helpful," he smiled.

Zillah nodded, she went back over to Minna, and after a few minutes she found an almost empty water bottle. Not seeing the need to waist the little bit that was there, she finished it off and then turned to head over to the well. Minna tried to follower her, but she had to stop and speak with her for a few minutes before going about her task.

"What are you doing?" Selma called from about fifty feet away.

"Mimir asked for water from the well, so I'm getting it from him, dugh! I'm not stupid enough to drink it myself. I sooo don't want to lose an eye or anything else!"

"Really? You're not stupid enough to drink from it? Okay, I'll believe it when I see it." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Whatever…" Zillah rolled her apple green eyes and continued over to the edge of the lake. She knelt down and started to fill it up but stopped.

That six sense in the back of her mind, the one that normally warned her of danger, started to go off.

"Hey Mimir?" She looked over her shoulder to find Selma standing next to the decapitated god. They looked like they were in the middle of a conversation.

She tried to shrug off the feeling. Another couple of seconds and the bottle became completely filled.

A plop sound caught her attention. Zillah slowly raised her eyes to scan the water. Tiny ripples waved out from a spot near the center of the lake.

Stay calm, she told herself. Zillah unclasped her hair clip and held it behind her back. She tried to act normal as she stood up. "Mimir?" She called a little louder.

His voice sounded slightly annoyed as he argued with Selma in Norse. It was odd, but she could almost make out what they were saying. Something about Hel and getting a body or something like that.

Another ripple popped closer to the shore. "MIMIR!" She started to back up.

"Seriously!" Selma shouted at her, "can you freaking mind your own business!"

Zillah ignored her, "Does anything live in the well?"

"What?" Selma sounded confused. She took a few steps away from Mimir in order to join Zillah.

"No, nothing lives in the Well. Now, there are several serpents that live among the roots of Yggdrasil. One in particular, Nidhogg, likes to eat corpses," Mimir spoke as if this was a completely normal thing.

"Ah… we're in a rainforest; there aren't many corpses around…" Zillah followed a dark line in the water. She wanted to be ready if this thing tried to attack her.

Selma's spear appeared in her hand, as she changed her stance.

"Animal corpses work too, you know." Mimir chuckled, "nothing to worry about."

"Are you sure?" Zillah asked. She was almost next to him at this point.

"I'm not going to find out." Selma launched her spear as the serpent launched out of the water.

The good thing was that the tip of the spear spun through the back of the snake's mouth.

The bad thing was that she didn't notice the second serpent hiding in the branches amongst Mimir's tree. That one launched toward Selma's extended hand.


	22. Awe Nuts!

**Chapter Twenty – Two: Awe Nuts!**

_**Lyra**_

Grrr! Why did they have to break her concentration! Lyra's eyes darted back and forth looking for that damn squirrel.

"EHEHEHEHE!"

A sudden shock to her skull made her blink. Oh, no he didn't!

"Over here!" Another nut was thrown at Lyra's head.

"STOP THAT!"

"EHEHEHEHE!" There was a quick scurry and several branches rustling before another nut was thrown at her head.

"LISTEN! COME ON!" The air started to become electric, "The Norns want to talk to you! That's all. Please, come here!"

"Norns snores," the squirrel's high pitch voice came from her right. Lyra darted her eyes to try to see the quick little beast.

"Grr!" She didn't have all day. In fact she needed to get going. This stupid quest was taking way to long, and from what she could tell she was missing school. Not that she liked her current school, but still the worst thing about it would be doing a ton of make-up work. Public school, they understand and give you the same amount of time you were off to make up the work. A boarding school… there was no excuses for not getting everything done within a few hours after the daily classes were done.

School wasn't her only concern. She wasn't even sure why she was thinking about it. Maybe it was her way of distracting her mind from her current list of problems.

Lyra winced as another nut smacked her in the temple. "Got any ideas, Blitz?" Lyra released the horse's hair. She just realized that she might be pulling it and suddenly felt bad about that.

The Selpiner snorted as it moved toward one of the branches. Apparently his senses were better than hers.

"EHEHEHEHEHE!" A nut was thrown at Blitz's head. "This is so much fun!"

Blitz kicked the branch with his first set of legs and then the one below it with another set of legs.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" The squirrel tried to grab a hold of the second branch but the second knock sent him flying through the air away from any other tree branches.

Blitz dove straight for the squirrel. He bit the end of the squirrel's tail with the tips of his teeth. His nostrils flared as he leveled out.

"AWE FIDDLE STICKS!" Ratatosokr snapped his fingers. "I was having so much fun." He tried to twist up to shake his tail out of the horse's mouth.

"Serves you right, throwing nuts at my head!" Lyra leaned over to look at him.

The squirrel made an inappropriate hand gesture.

Lyra gasped, "If you don't want to be known as Ratasparky, then you better behave!"

The squirrel stuck his tongue out, "just because you're Thor reborn, doesn't mean you can strike me with lightning."

Lyra's eyes sparked, "Blitz I'm tempted to let you eat his tail."

The horse shook his head back and forth.

"AHHHH! Stop that or I'll tell Minna you have a crush on her!"

Blitz threw the squirrel up in the air and caught his tail a bit further down, this time he actually appeared to pinch flesh.

"OUCH! Okay! Okay! I won't say anything, you are no fun!"

Lyra continued to lean forward as she stared at the squirrel. She was still processing what he said. Thor reborn? What does that mean? Thor died during the last Ragnarok. She suddenly wished Skylar was here to find out what he thought that meant, but she knew that wouldn't happen for a while. Besides this squirrel was obviously a notorious busybody. She had to make sure she was careful about what she was going to say around him.

Lyra took several deep breaths and pictured living in a quite cabin in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. That was her happy place. A while back she ummm… leveled an entire cheerleading squad for spreading ugly rumors about her brother. As a result one of their parents threatened to sue her mother unless she went to anger management classes.

Safe to say the anger management classes didn't really work, especially when the therapist was a sphinx, but that's another story. What she took from going to the class was a few pamphlets that made some suggestions as to what to do to calm herself down.

Once her hair was close to going back to being blond she decided to question the squirrel. There really had to be a good explanation for the Norns wanting him, maybe he already knew? "So, Ratatosokr…I said that right, right?"

The squirrel crossed his arms as he hung upside down.

Lyra shrugged, "Oh, the silent treatment? Really? Now, I heard that you were an extremely smart creature. It's too bad we can't have a civil conversation before heading back to the Norns."

His eyes perked up as she gave him a compliment. He tilted his head, "who said that?"

"Well, the history books do of course! If it wasn't for you, that wrym eating the roots of the World Tree, would have done so already. You keep him entertained, you know, and by doing that you've single handedly delayed the next Ragnarok," she tried to give him a pleasant smile.

He chewed on that for a moment, "I guess I have! And Veorfolnir said I'm annoying!"

"No! He didn't!" Lyra gasped, "why would anyone say that? Obviously you've got important things to say." She internally groaned.

"You're right, I do! I DO! I DO! I'm the smartest, bravest squirrel in the entire world. Who else would dare to talk to Niohggr, but me?! And you know what he's almost done eating the most important root of the tree. He's just waiting for Hel to tell him to finish it off!"

Lyra's brows came together, "now why would she want him to do that?"

"You got me! Niohggr says that Mother Earth is stirring and that she wants Hel to take out all of you reborn godlings."

"That's horrible; we've done nothing to deserve that!" Lyra was actually upset about hearing that.

"Gaia's got enough on her hands now that she's awakened the giants. Believe me, they are not nice. They're aiming to kill off the Greek and Roman gods while Apophasis takes out Ra and the Egyptian Magicians. It's a big mess if you'd ask me." His cute high pitched voice sounded funny stating all of those things.

What?! Too much to process by herself, "What does Veorfolnir think about all of that?"

"He thinks I'm lying! The nerve of that hawk! Arnporr, your eagle, doesn't say much, except he tries to bully me around. You really should tell him you're back because I would love to see you pluck his feathers!"

She had an eagle that was news to her, "I see… well I'll have to set both of them straight. But first I need to escort you to the Norns." She looked down as they flew back to the Well of Fate. Lyra spotted the Norns leaning over Trent. He was taking a nap. Now, that wasn't a smart thing to do, especially being alone like that.

"Hey, who's the kid?" The squirrel twisted and turned as he tried to get a better look at Trent.

"A friend of mine," Lyra frowned.

"Oh… a friend, really? Sif will be so jealous!" He started to rub his hands together.

Sif… Lyra had to think for a moment. Thor's wife… ugh wait a minute.

Lyra's brows knitted together as the image of a woman with actual gold hair popped into her mind. _She wore a sad expression as the sound of a crow echoed through the hall. "Don't go!" She begged._

"_I must, you know that!" Lyra clenched her hammer in her hand._

"_You'll die." A golden tears stained her youthful face._

"_So be it," Lyra turned to run out of the hall._

"_I'm coming with you. If you are going to die, then so will I!" _

Lyra blinked as the odd vision cleared her mind, "News flash, Ratty, I'm a girl. I'm not into other girls. Unless Sif was reborn as that super-hot son of Aphrodite I met during the summer, I'm never going to be interested."

"So you say… you never know unless you try…"

"EWE! Stop it, not even going to go there!" She winced. Lyra had nothing against girls that liked other girls, but that was just not her thing.

"EHEHEHEHEHE! You're just as touchy as you used to be, I love it!" The squirrel curled up and patted the horse's nose. "Okay, we are here; you can let me go now."

Blitz landed several feet away from the Norns.

"Hello ladies!" Ratty flashed them a toothy grin. "Missed me?"


	23. The Serpents of Yggdrasil

**Chapter Twenty-Three: The Serpents of Yggdrasil**

_**Lyra**_

"Wow, you ladies look exactly the same! You know the fashion trends have changed, you don't need to be walking around in bed sheets!" Ratty's high pitched voice made Lyra's eyes cross as he offered the Norns fashion advice.

"We have a bit of gossip for you to chew on," the auburn haired Norn smiled.

The squirrel's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, "you do? You're all so annoyingly cryptic, say it in plain English!"

"It will cost you," the white haired Norn gave Lyra a wink.

"Awe fiddle sticks," he continued to mutter some inappropriate comments about the Norns being similar to female dogs.

The raven haired child shrugged her shoulders, "if you don't want to deliver the message to the hawk, then you need not learn our gossip."

Lyra's stomach turned. This was the type of thing she expected to hear during lunch in the school cafeteria, not from ancient goddesses and a squirrel.

"Ok, spill it Norns."

"Come with me and I will tell you all," The white haired Norn extended her hand.

Ratty wiggled his nose as he slightly hesitated. He sniffed the air and then he decided to go anyway. The two walked off toward an open space near where the Sleipnir stood waiting. Without a bright light or loud noise or anything at all the two disappeared.

Jerri, who was just returning from her horse with her medical bag, gasped.

"What just happened?" Lyra's hair went gray.

The Norn, that looked like a child, shrugged once more, "they went into our hall."

"Oh," Lyra felt like she was just sucker punched. Apparently there was an invisible building only a few feet away from her horse. Nice...

Jerri seemed to snap out of it first, she knelt down next to Trent. Within seconds she had out the water bottle filled with nectar that they got from the Apollo girls.

"What happened to him?" Lyra asked.

"Ah… the Well of Fate fell on him?" Jerri's ears turned red.

"WHAT?"

"The boy will be fine, he's time has yet to come." The auburn haired Norn looked slightly bored.

Lyra was about to question them further when Trent started to cough.

Trent's green eyes burst open, he rambled as fast as he could about something.

"Trent slow down."

He balled his fists, "Meredith's tied up and a wolf's going to eat her!"

"Meredith? You saw her? Where is she?" Lyra's heart hammered in her chest.

"I… I don't know! It was too dark." He pulled on his sandy blond hair as he looked wildly about him.

The air became electric around them as Lyra tried to figure out what to do. She turned toward the two remaining Norns, "we fulfilled our side of the bargain, now please give us the vile so we can be on our way."

The raven haired Norn pulled the vile from her robe and handed it to Lyra. With a slight nod, both Norns withdrew into their hall.

Lyra slid the vile into the inner pocket of her coat, "do you know anything about wolves?" Lyra asked Jerri as she helped Trent stand up.

Jerri looked slightly nervous, "umm… a little … but not enough to help you find your friend." She strapped her medical bag back onto her horse's saddle.

"Tell us what you know anyway." Trent demanded as he practically jumped on top of his horse.

Jerri mounted her Slepiner and closed her eyes, "Loki and Angrboda's eldest child was the wolf Fenrir." Her horse shuttered hearing that name. "He grew so large that the gods bound him. Eventually he broke free and swallowed Odin during Ragnarok. It is said that Vioarr, Odin's son, eventually slayed him by stabbing him in the heart after ripping his jaw off."

"Let me guess, he's regenerated?" Lyra shuttered as they launched into the air.

"Yep. He looks for godlings to devour before they reach an age where they can bind him once again," Jerri's voice sounded a bit shaky. Apparently this monster must be something wicked if it took down Odin.

"Anything else?" Trent called over the wind.

"Yeah, there's also Fenrir's children Skoll and Hati. I have no idea what they're up to. Lastly, there are the wolves Geri and Freki. They were Odin's pets. They normally feasted on the dead after a battle, but as to where they are right now, I have no clue," she shouted.

"What about Fenrir? Do you know where he is?" Personally Lyra did not want to have to fight a giant wolf if she could help it.

"No, he's always on the move." She pointed in the direction they were heading, "The Well of Wisdom is over there."

Lyra squinted her eyes as she strained to see if Zillah had made it there okay. She also prayed that her brother would be back already but that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, she squinted harder, as light reflected off of several pieces of medal. It appeared that there was a fight going on.

As they got closer, Lyra was able to see four gigantic snakes trying to kill Zillah and Selma. These things were ginormous. Two of them had to be at least the size of several freight cars put together.

Thoughts of the quest and Meredith were put aside as they reached the Well. Lyra didn't even bother waiting to land. She jumped off of Blitz and landed split legged on top of one of the serpents.

"Lyra!" Jerri tossed down her sword as her armor appeared.

"Thanks!" She crushed her fingers into the serpent's scales, squirting up some nasty juices. The snake turned its attention toward the girl ridding it rather than continue batting Zillah.

Its tail flared around trying to squat her off as its head tried to turn back on itself. Lyra was too close to its head to fanged, but not far enough to get squatted. Holding on to the open wound she adjusted Jerri's sword in her hand and stabbed the beast sending the blade through its neck up to its hilt. She did this again and again several times until she was about to connect all the stabs with one long slash.

The good thing was that the serpent curled up on itself and evaporated into a yellow dust. The bad thing was that Lyra fell about ten feet to the ground, landing on her butt as it happened.

Yellow dust erupted several feet away from her, near the water, as Selma and Jerri finished off one of the serpents.

Zillah was also covered in yellow dust as she ran over toward Trent. Trent was still on the back of his Slepiner. The last serpent was chasing after him.

Lyra picked herself up and ran after them. The snake's tail was so long that she was about to catch up to that in no time. The tricky part was getting to the rest of it a football field away.

She launched herself onto the snake's tail. One scale grip at a time she pulled herself up the snake's body. Meanwhile, Trent was doubling back causing the snake to turn back on itself. Zillah attempted to cut its head off but missed by several feet. She had given it a nasty slash, but it wasn't good enough to take off its head.

By the time it doubled completely back toward them, Lyra decided to try to jump from the back of the tail to further up its body. This was a good thing, and it was a bad thing. The good thing was that she didn't kill herself in the process. The bad thing was that the snake now knew she was on him.

Selma and Jerry launched their spears toward the snake as it approached them. Each of them was aiming for an eye, of course. However, both of them missed. One spear grazed his side the other was stuck about a foot from his eye.

The serpent hissed, seeing two weaponless targets just standing there at the moment, looked more appetizing then the kid on the horse. It changed directions and launched itself at them.

Selma ran full speed at the serpent. She practically dove into its mouth as it went to grab them. From inside the monster's mouth she pushed her sword up into its brain. Seconds later it too evaporated into a cloud of yellow dust.

Selma fell to her knees and was covered in a mix of stuff. "Stay on guard," she screamed.

Lyra also fell as the serpent turned to dust. The odd thing was that the dust was not going away. It hovered in the air.

"What's going on?" Trent asked.

"They're going to reform!" Selma hissed.

"WHAT?" Lyra heard herself scream.

"They've already done it once before." Zillah whipped the sweat off her brow with her sleeve.

"Then let's get out of here!" Trent cried.

"We can't, Mimir hasn't told us what he knows yet, and besides Skylar's not back yet," Zillah said as she sat down.

The yellow dust stayed in the air.

"How long did it take to reform?" Lyra stood. She tried to move out of the dust particles but wasn't able to find a clear spot.

"About ten minutes. The two smaller ones only took about five," Zillah sighed.

Lyra was beside herself. Her sky blue eyes scanned the area for the decapitated head of the god of wisdom, "where's Mimir?"

"Over there!" Zillah pointed to a small tree about two football fields away from them.

"Great…" Lyra sighed, "I got to give him the vile." She started to jog toward the tree.

"Lyra wait, don't waste your energy!" Zillah attempted to scramble to her feet.

Lyra didn't want to wait. In fact, she didn't want to accidently break the vile, though she wouldn't get her chance to give it to Mimir just yet. Before she traveled half way there, the first serpent had already reformed. It quickly slithered back into the water before any of them could attack it.

Weird, she thought, as she resumed her mission.

"Lyra come back, we need to stay together!" Zillah was following her. By the time she finally reached her the second snake reformed.

Both snakes saw an opportunity that was too hard to resist. They both launched themselves at Lyra and Zillah.


	24. There's No Place Like Home

**Chapter Twenty –Four: There's No Place like Home**

_**Meredith**_

Meanwhile, Meredith didn't know what she expected. In fact it likely served her right for going along with Remy into his mother's house, but what was done, was done and now it was time to face the music.

When the lights went out and her conscious mind turned off, Meredith normally found herself alone on her island. But not this time; this time she felt herself drifting away from that strange kitchen and being rapidly pulled home. And that was the one place in the world she actually wanted to be.

Meredith always looked up to her mom. If there was a crisis, she was the one to look toward to come up with a plan. And if that plan failed she had at least two or three others in the back of her mind ready to go.

"MOM!" Meredith screamed with relief as she landed in the middle of their small kitchen. She ran over toward her but stopped short.

Sophie Glew was in a state of panic. Her sandy blond hair was thrown up in a messy bun while she wore her yoga pants over her silver sleeveless satin cami night gown. Several grocery bags were littered across the counters and kitchen table. All of their old I pods, cell phones, and small electronics were in another pile.

"Mom? Hey, Mom! Can you hear me?" Meredith bit her lip as her tears started to wiggle their way out of her eyes. "Damn it, I must be dreaming…" She closed her eyes not wanting to believe that she was actually still back at that mad woman's house.

"Okay…" Sophie took a deep breath. "I think I almost got everything." She bit her lip in the same way that her daughter did.

Meredith followed her mother out into the living room/office/dining room area of their small house.

Sophie quickly went over to the computer in order to pull a couple of pieces of paper out of the printer. She pulled down her Benjamin Franklin glasses off the top of her sandy blond colored head in order to read them over.

"Okay… I can do this… I can do this…" She quickly turned back toward the kitchen. Within five steps she had the first grocery bag clenched to her chest while her bare feet took her outside into the mid-November air.

Out on the broken concrete patio, their fire pit stood ablaze. It was a bit bigger than they needed for the four of them, but a big fire pit was a better fire pit, something Zillah had suggested. She informed them that her luck started to improve when she began burning garbage scrapes in one of the cemeteries she hid in during her days on the run. Meredith thought that was a bit odd to just burn something that could still be eaten or used but she didn't argue. It seemed to make Zillah happy that she could give them this bit of advice.

Sophie stopped short of the fire pit. She looked down at the note and whispered, "Dear Lord Poseidon, please accept my offering. My daughter, Meredith, is lost at sea. I know that she is in danger. Please protect her."

Sophie threw the paper into the fire. She then pulled a jewelry box out of the grocery bag.

Meredith winced as her mother pulled out a long strand of creamy white pearls. With a flick of her wrist, Sophie threw the pearls into the fire. Next, she added the matching earrings, bracelet, and ring. They were her most expensive pieces of jewelry and now they were gone forever.

Sophie didn't stop there. She bent down and pulled out some large pieces of fish from the supermarket.

From what Meredith could tell by the price tags, they were just purchased that morning and they were way too expensive for her mother to afford. But there they were, one minute in her hands the next into the fire.

Meredith watched Sophie for another minute while her gaze was fixed on the burning fish and pearls. With flushed cheeks and tears in her eyes she ran back into the house. Meredith was about to attempt to follow her, but she came right back out with an arm full of grocery bags and electronics.

Sophie clumsily dropped all of that stuff in front of the fire pit. She then read a second letter that was still in her hand, "Dear Lord Hermes, please accept my offering. My daughter, Meredith, is lost and I do not know where to find her and her brother Trent. Please help me find a way to locate them."

She bent down and started to toss atlases, maps, and a bunch of small electronics into the fire. Once that was done she dumped an entire grocery bag of energy bars into the blaze.

Meredith couldn't do anything but stare in awe. The mix of items must have reeked, but she was unable to smell anything. Part of her wanted to wake up and find a way to call her mom, another part of her just wanted to stay here watching her mother silently pray. However, she would not get to do either of those things.

Her backyard disappeared with the blink of an eye. The next thing she knew she was standing in the middle of a post office. Large brown boxes lined the walls at one end while piles of smaller packages were stacked on the opposite side. It wasn't a huge post office but she wasn't sure if there were any other rooms attached to it behind the large counter.

A bell chimed. It sounded like one of those bells that pinged each time a new person stepped into a story.

"Sorry, we're closed!" A strong voice come from somewhere behind the counter.

Meredith turned in a complete circle. No one else was in the room. "Hello?" She whispered.

"_Who is it?" _A female slithering sound wrapped itself around Meredith's brain.

"Are you talking to me?" Meredith took a few steps forward.

"_Stop right there! We're closed. Period. Total lockdown. No one comes in, and no one comes out!" _A male slithering sound hissed in her brain.

"Umm… I'm kind of stuck here. I'm dreaming and umm… I don't know this is so weird," Meredith sighed.

"_She sounds like she needs our help, maybe we could…"_

"Martha! That's enough." A brown cap popped up behind the counter followed curly salt and pepper. A man leaned over the counter. He stared straight into her eyes as if he were trying to look up her image on a computer screen. He was fairly handsome for a thirty something year old. In fact, he kind of reminded her of the captain from that TV show _Firefly _her mom loved to watch on the Science Fiction channel. "Let me guess, you're Meredith Glew."

Meredith's gray eyes sparkled, "you can see me?"

"You bet I can," He smirked.

"And you know my name?" Meredith shook her head, "how is that possible… unless you're…" Her eyes felt like they were going to bug out of her head. "Lord Hermes? Or is it Lord Mercury?"

He shrugged, "I go by both. But right now, I'm Hermes, messenger of the gods, commerce, travel, thieves, merchants, etc."

Meredith knelt down on the ground and bent her head. "I apologize for materializing here… I don't know how to control…"

"That's enough, girl, you don't need to get all tongue tied about it. Your, milf of a mom was praying to me, and so I thought I'd talk to you since you were watching her," He smirked.

"My what?" Meredith blinked in confusion, "you saw her praying? Are you going to help her?"

Hermes reached down and picked up a handful of the energy bars my mother had burnt. He placed them on the counter, "I'd love to, really I would, but you see, girl, Olympus is in lockdown. We can't really do anything other than inventory."

"I don't understand, I'm here, can't you appear to her in the fire and tell her where to find my body?" She held back a sob.

"_Maybe we can help her a little bit…" _the female slithery voice suggested.

"Quiet Martha," Hermes took a cell phone out of his pocket. He placed it down on the counter next to the energy bars. "You see, kid, we Greek gods don't directly interfere with the lives of mortals."

"I sort of get that, I guess." Meredith than wondered what was the point of praying to them if they couldn't do anything to help her out.

Hermes frowned, "What I'm trying to say is that I can't directly tell your mom where you are. Now, if she were to Google the right words or scry for you on a map I could…" He tilted his head, "what a smart girl…"

"Who? My mom?" Meredith's brows knitted together.

Hermes gave her a quick wink as Meredith was pulled away from his post office.

Her nose tickled meanwhile her eye lids felt like ten pound weights were strapped to them. After about a minute of trying to focus her eyes the blurry image of Remy's face came into focus.

"Goo..good you a..are awake," He stuttered.

Meredith's shoulders ached. She tried to snap out of the fog, of being asleep, but it was very hard to, "yeah… great timing." She tried to move her arms but they were bound together behind her body. "Remy let me go. This is ridiculous. I want to go home. I promise I'll never tell anyone that you kidnapped me. Just please…" He pressed his wet palm to her mouth.

"Ca can't let you go..go..." He look intently into her eyes as he whispered. "Mo… moth ther's not here. But my siss ssters are."

Meredith tried to talk but he wouldn't move his hand. She slipped her tongue out of her lips.

Remy pulled back and looked down at his palm.

"Where did she go?" Meredith hissed her whisper.

Remy blinked in confusion as he turned his watery gaze back on her. "To Hel."


	25. Wiggle Room

_About 2,100 views and 2 reviews! Please let me know what you think about the story so far! :D_

**Chapter Twenty Five: Wiggle Room**

_**Meredith**_

"She died?" Meredith blinked.

"Died? N..no. Hel is a de..death goddess." Remy took a Snickers bar out of his pocket.

Meredith's stomach growled, she couldn't remember when was the last time she ate anything.

He opened the packaging and held the end of the Snickers bar to her lips. "Eat."

Unless it was a really old Snickers bar, Meredith didn't need to be told twice. Luckily that wasn't the only Snickers bar he had on him. Meredith wolfed down about five of those things before she noticed they were no longer alone. In fact, it was the first time she thought to look around and actually see where she was being held.

They were tucked away in a small room with only a tiny arched window near the pitched ceiling. The only exit was a trap door in the middle of the floor. So, based upon that evidence, Meredith assumed she was in an attic.

A woman with stringy blood red hair and eyes stood in one of the shadowy corners.

Remy looked over his shoulder, "can I have a fe…few more min..minutes? P..please Blooughadda."

The ghostly looking woman stepped into the pale sun light. "Mother said to feed her and then to put her back to sleep." She lifted a water bottle.

Remy took it and sighed, "Sorr..sorry." He unscrewed the cap.

Meredith shook her head, "no, Remy, please don't give me that." She tried to push backwards but found that her arms were wrapped around a column and her hidden knife was digging into her bicep.

Blooughadda stepped forward, her icy fingers pinched Meredith's nose.

Meredith tried to hold her breath but it was no use. As soon as she took a breath Remy shoved the water bottle in her mouth. They repeated this process until she finally passed out.

Meredith hoped she would find herself back at Hermes's post office, but this time she wasn't that lucky. A chill ran down her back as she floated on a wisp of mist under a black sky. There were no distinguishing landmarks, so she had no idea where she was, but what she did see was a wolf lounging in the distance.

As she grew closer to the wolf he grew in size. An elderly looking woman in a ragged cloak approached the wolf from the opposite direction. The wolf opened one of his golden eyes before closing it again. Meredith felt like shouting at the woman and telling her to turn around and go the other way, but she knew that wouldn't do anything. Her eyes widened as the woman got closer to the wolf. It was like watching an ant standing next to a coke can. The woman was the ant and the wolf was the coke can.

"Welcome home, brother," her voice cracked.

He licked his lips but kept still.

"Now Fenrir, is that anyway to greet your baby sister," She made a tisk tisk sound with her lips. "I see you are growing in size. This is good, but you are still too small."

If she could, Meredith would have gagged. He was huge.

"_Hel… give me food and I will grow. Otherwise leave me alone." _He scratched his ear with his back paw.

"Ah, I have nothing to give you but information." She chuckled, "our time is nearing once again. But this time we will survive the day and rule all."

Fenrir flopped down once more as he yawned, _"Tell me and be quick about it."_

"Our enemies have been reborn. Most of them have survived to reach puberty," Her eyes narrowed as if such an offence was a terrible thing.

Fenrir lifted his head as he sat to attention.

"Find them and feast on their flesh and you will grow stronger with each Aesir you consume." Her decaying jaw grinned.

"_And father? Have you found him yet?" _The wolf stared at his sister.

"He eludes me. Loki was always good at hiding. He is likely protecting his current body without realizing it," she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"_I will eat the Aesir and find our father." _He licked his chops.

"Be quick about it. The longer the Aesir linger the stronger they become. The undercurrent of the approaching Ragnarock increases each day. This time we will be the victors and all of the mortal kind will be extinguished from Midgard. That will only leave the other pantheons. In their confusion we will bend their will toward ours and absorb their levels of reality into our own." The hag grinned as a worm wiggled its way through her exposed decaying jaw. She plucked it from her withered hand and sent it back into her mouth.

"So be it." Fenrir began to glow into a blinding light causing Meredith to look away.

When she thought it was safe to open her eyes she tried to rub the white spots away, but was unable to do so. Apparently she had woken up without even realizing it. Mud clung to legs through the tattered holes in her jeans. No longer was she being kept in an attic, but instead she was outside somewhere.

Gray light broke through the holes in the canopy of pine trees that loamed like massive pillars all around her. It was one of these pine trees that she was tied to.

Her stomach growled and she really needed to use the rest room, but she doubted anyone would let her do that. Or, well, if there was anyone there they didn't make themselves known. Meredith searched the area from the ground up to tops of the trees to see if she could see anything other than pine trees. When that didn't work she closed her eyes and listened. Only the sounds of birds and squirrels greeted her ears.

Meredith's brows knitted together and she tried to form a plan. She couldn't tell if anyone was watching her from behind the pine tree, but that wasn't going to stop her from trying to escape.

"If there are any owls out there," She whispered, "I could use your help!"

Meredith paused giving herself a few seconds to listen for any owls. The memory of her mother's voice telling her that owls are nocturnal popped into her mind. She sighed, too bad she couldn't turn her head around like an owl, but that would be asking too much.

The only thing that she had going for her was the slight wiggle room between herself and the pine tree.

Wither it was an oversight or Remy feeling guilty about tricking her, her knife was still strapped to her arm under her sweatshirt. She silently hoped it was the special ed. cutie oversight, but that might bode badly for him if his mother ever found out that he purposely left it there.

After listening for about another half hour as the sun's rays grew stronger, Meredith decided to start working on her arm band to loosen the dagger. There were several snaps that held it into place, not to mention the leather sheath, but that was something to worry about after it became loosened.

It took a great deal of patients, which Meredith was forced to practice on a daily bases having an extremely impulsive younger brother, but after what felt like an hour it came loose. The blade dropped in her baggy sweatshirt falling toward her hands. Now that would have been good if the damn thing wasn't sheathed but then again it would have likely slit her wrist in an attempt to cut the ropes that were holding her.

Bracing her upper back against the tree behind her, she wiggled her arms up the trunk so that they could let the blade slide down onto her lap. Once done, she slid her arms back down and wiggled the dagger toward her knees. At this point she was able to squeeze her knees together and lift them toward her mouth. Within a few moments, Meredith had used her teeth to unsnap the sheath and pull it from the blade.

The bad thing about all of this is that when she looked down at her prize, it was not her blade. A horrible heavy plastic toy stared up at her.

She cried out in frustration after going through all of that to find out that she had been given false hope.

Waves of laughter crashed into her as the sound of a large group of women came from behind her. There was no footfalls crunching pine needles or splashing mud, but within a few seconds ten women surrounded her.

At the center was Remy's mother. Her lips twisted in pure amusement, "my son might be thick headed, but my daughters aren't so easily fooled."

Meredith scanned the women; the one with the blood red hair was amongst them. They each looked extremely different from each other as far as coloring, their hair and clothing were concerned, but each of them had similar features to Remy and his mother.

Remy's mother plucked the fake knife from in-between Meredith's knees. "Only humans cannot sense Celestial Bronze."

"So, you're not human?" Meredith's momentarily harsh voice sounded scratchy from lack of water.

Another wave of laughter broke in Meredith's ears. "You have no idea who we are, do you Greek?"

Meredith rolled her eyes, "obviously not, umm… Canadian, and by the way I'm AMERICAN."

For some reason they found that to also be funny. "We're Aseir goddesses, stupid girl."

Meredith frowned, "Aseir goddesses, never heard of them. Greek yes, Roman yes, and Egyptian. Oh, and Norse but I don't know who you are." Her eyes scanned their clothing for clues. There was only one common denominator. They all were wet. Their skirts were dripping as were their sleeves. Some of them looked like they just got out of the shower or were caught in a sudden down pour.

"The Aseir are the Norse goddesses," Remy's mother rubbed her temples, "what are they teaching you in school?"

"So, you answer to Odin?" Meredith's eyes lit up as she started to silently pray to that god.

Once again they all started to laugh at her, "Odin's been dead for a very long time, and we answer to no one." She looked into the sky; the sun was directly above them. "Well, this has been amusing. However, it is time that we left you to be scarified."

"Scarified? You got to be kidding. Goddesses don't need to make scarifies, people sacrifice to them!" Meredith struggled with her ropes as that blood red headed goddess approached her once again. One of her sisters joined her. This one was so pale; Meredith could swear she could see her bones through her skin.

The others laughed and turned away from her. They practically floated as they walked toward the direction which they originally came from. As each of them passed her line of sight a fresh bright light blazed through the trees. Meanwhile the two daughters forced another bottle of water down Meredith's throat.


End file.
